/ 

LECTURES 



[THE LIBRARY 
Of CONGRESS 



ON 



WASHINGTON 
i 1 i 1 -——nil 



The Heidelberg Catechism, 

/ 



x BY THE 



REV. E. V. GERHART, D. D., 



THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



n 



3 L 




printed by the 
Lecture Printing Society of the Theoeogicae Seminary of 
the Reformed Church, Lancaster, Pa. 
i 891. 



9 



Copyright, 1891, 

BY 

Emanuel V. Gerhart. 



EXAM1NFK PUBLISHING HOUSE, 
LANCASTER, PA. 



THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM 



From Question 43 to Question 85. 
Q-43- 

The word further presupposes the doctrine of the atone- 
ment as set forth in the preceding answers, beginning with 
Question 37. - 

These answers present the objective virtue of the Lord's 
death. Why was it necessary that Jesus should die on the 
Cross ? What is the value and the virtue of His death in 
relation to God and to sinful mankind? Under these aspects 
the six preceding questions discuss the subject. Here we 
pass from the objective to the subjective value of Christ's 
death. The question is: What benefit do I, a believer, an 
individual member of Christ, actually receive from this 
sacrifice. The answer is "that by His power the old man 
is crucified, slain and buried, so that the evil lusts of the 
flesh may no more reign in us." 

The answer resolves itself into two parts. The first is 
a direct answer to the question. 

The benefit that believers receive is "that the old man" 
is destroyed. The other part of the answer describes the 
purpose which the destruction of the old man conditions. 
The purpose is two-fold; on the one side it is negative. 
The lusts of the flesh shall not reign in us. On the other 
side the purpose is positive. We offer ourselves to Christ 
a living sacrifice of thankfulness. 

1. Note the fact that as the Catechism lays stress on the 
death ot Christ on the cross, so do all the confessions of the 
Reformation period. Why? The antithesis is the unbloody 
sacrifice of the body of Christ upon the altar in the Roman 
Catholic Church. This is always implied by the emphasis 
put by the Catechism on Christ dying on the cross. 

2. The benefit individual believers receive from Christ's 
sacrifice is that, our own "old man is slain." The old man ■ 



Q: 43- 



is the fallen, sinful nature, which by natural birth we 
inherit. It is the expression used by Paul in Rom. 6:6. 
Also in Coll. 3 : 9, in opposition to the new man, which is 
the regenerate nature of those who believe in Christ. 

The old man is crucified, slain and buried. These three 
terms are used to express the utter destruction of sinful, 
corrupt human nature. 

3. Two things are to be noted that condition the utter 
destruction of the old man. The first is ' His power.' Whose 
power? The power of the self-sacrificing, dying Christ. In 
His death, rightly considered, there is a virtue triumphant 
over sin. By rightly considered, I mean the negative and 
positive forces of his death. It is this singular, sin-destroy- 
ing virtue realized in the power of Jesus dying for the 
world, which is the only virtue by which our sinful nature 
can be annulled. 

The other condition is the fact, expressed by the words 
"with Him." The 'old man' in us is not slain by Christ's 
power externally exerted, or brought to bear upon us in the 
Bible or by words, however important that influence may 
be ; but we share Christ's sin-destroying virtue by union 
with Him in faith. He appropriates us by His Holy Spirit ; 
we appropriate Him by faith. 

Says Paul, "I am crucified with Christ." Again, "there- 
fore we are buried with Him by Baptism into death." 

When through faith Christ and we are one, He has what 
is of us and our own, and we have what is of Him and His 
own. He is the perfect, righteous One bearing my sins, and 
I share the full virtue of His righteousness and propitia- 
tion. 

4. The end effected by union with Christ and His power, 
under its negative aspect, is that the evil lusts of the flesh 
may no more reign in us. " Lust" epithumia, namely, 
desires, impulses, propensities, springing from perverted 
human nature ; some predominantly physical, others 
spiritual ; but all growing forth from the false principle in us, 
which we call sin. The Catechism says "evil lusts." The 
word evil expresses the moral character of lusts. Can we 
speak of spiritual lusts? Yes. What are they? False desires, 
false propensities in the spiritual sphere which, on the one 
hand evince themselves by antagonism to God and Jesus 
Christ ; and on the other hand by refined iniquity. These 
lusts reign in unregenerate man. The only power by which 
this reign may be broken is that which lies in vital union 

4 



Q- 43- 



with Christ. Why? Because He is the only man among 
men who in our human nature overcame these lusts. 

5. Under its positive aspect the benefit is that we may 
offer ourselves to Christ a sacrifice of thankfulness. Com- 
pare Rom. 12: 1, 2. This is the only condition on 
which victory over sin depends. These two aspects are to 
be considered together. The positive conditions the nega- 
tive ; though we have the opposite order in the answer. In 
the degree in which I of my own free will offer myself 
actually to Jesus Christ, am I overcoming the evil lusts of 
the flesh. It is, however, to be noted that the two mutually 
condition each other. He who allows lusts to reign over 
him in any degree does not in the right sense offer himself 
to Christ. 

6. The answer is valid as representing the beginning of 
Christian life; in other words, the old man is utterly de- 
stroyed in principle. The beginning of the destruction is 

' the new birth; but the destruction is not ultimate. The 
destruction advances only in the degree in which the regen- 
erate life is vital and growing. In the degree that the 
regenerate life approaches perfect holiness, will the old man 
be utterly destroyed, using the word perfect in its broadest 
New Testament sense. That perfection will be attained at 
the second coming of Christ, when the whole man, body, 
soul and spirit, the Church . universal, shall attain to the 
possession of the glory of the Lord. In the final sense, 
the old man as set forth in Scripture will be utterly over- 
come only in the end. 

It is no reflection on Christianity that a faithful Christian 
is imperfect. No reflection that a saint a century old has 
occasion to make confession of shortcomings and asks 
renewed communications of grace. 

Q- 44- 

In the New Testament we have two words denoting the 
future condition of the dead, as distinct from the final glory 
of heaven. The one is Hades, the other Gehenna. 

Gehenna, or Ge Hinnom is the name of the valley where 
the refuse of Jerusalem was burned. The fire being kept up 
day and night, it became the image of the finally lost. 
Hades is derived from two Greek words, & and idstv. Hades, 
etymologically, means in the New Testament the future, 
5 



Q. 44- 



unseen world as distinguished from the world visible to the 
bodily eye. It is a very innocent word. The Creed teaches 
that by His crucifixion and death Jesus passed into the 
unseen world, called by the ancients under-world. This 
word presupposes their conceptions of astronomy and geol- 
ogy. The earth was a plane; beneath this plane were 
unfathomed depths into which the dead departed. 

The form of the conception is like that of the Hebrews ; 
and is similar to the Tartarus of the Greeks. 

The answer of the Catechism is an interpretation which 
differs from the accepted meaning of this article as pre- 
valent w T hen the Apostles' Creed was in process of forma- 
tion. This answer is due to Calvin: he introduced the 
explanation of hades as given in this answer ; doubtless his 
chief motive was to get rid of the doctrine of Purgatory. 
To admit the descent of Jesus into the under world seemed 
to him and to the authors of the Catechism to involve 
complications with the Roman doctrine of purification and 
suffering in the world to come. 

The interpretation of the descensus as here given was 
never accepted by all branches of the Reformed Church. 
Time and theological thought have in a measure sur- 
mounted Calvin's difficulty. A very large proportion of 
the Reformed churches in Germany, France and other 
countries on the Continent, especially theologians, concede 
that the descensus has a meaning other than that given by 
this answer. In this regard the Lutheran Church of the 
sixteenth century, even Melanchthon and his school, came 
under the influence of Calvin. 

Do not infer from these statements that I question the 
truth of the answer. The answer teaches truth. But the 
meaning is not an answer to the Question, not a legitimate 
exposition of hades. I presume a large majority of Re- 
formed ministers, in the ranks of the older as well as of 
younger men, both German and English, would concur in 
the statement. 

The substance of this answer is the equivalent, somewhat 
intensified, of the answers previously given. It is not 
requisite, therefore, to enter specially into verbal exposition. 
One thing only I note. Says the Catechism, u He suffered 
in His soul on the cross, and before. 1 ' It emphasizes the 
mental and moral force of the curse which lay upon Jesus, 
The word cross brings to view prominently His bodily pain. 
6 



Q- 45- 



Observe a singular thing regarding this fundamental fact 
of Christianity. Our Catechism does not ask as it com- 
monly does touching other articles: What dost thou under- 
stand by the Resurrection of Christ? 

But waving what is primary, it passes on to inquire 
what benefit we receive? The Answer is three-fold. First, 
" by His resurrection He has overcome death, that He might 
make us partakers of the righteousness which by His death 
He has obtained for us." 

The second part sets forth the benefit believers receive: 
"We are also now by His power raised up to a new life." 

The third part emphasises Christ's resurrection as the 
"pledge of our resurrection." 

1 . By His resurrection Christ has overcome death ; death 
is inwardly connected with sin. Sin is the principle, the 
seed, from which grows forth or is produced that abnormal 
epoch we call " Death." 

Death is a point in the process of human history. A 
turning point at which sinful man passes from the present 
earthly period into the post-earthly, unseen period of his 
existence. 

Death, therefore, is a realm, The entire period of man's 
existence beyond his earthly state (because through sin it is 
abnormal and false), bears the same name, death. Christ 
overcame death. He and no other. He the First and the 
L,ast. He overcame it inasmuch as in His person and life, 
though born of woman, born under the law, He abolished 
the principle of sin. He wrought out sinlessness in His per- 
sonal history on a positive ground ; that is, inasmuch as in 
His person and life He fulfilled the law of love, thus real- 
izing in Himself the ideal of manhood. 

2. The Catechism subordinates the Resurrection to His 
death on the cross. The purpose of the Resurrection was 
" that He might make us partakers of the Righteousness 
which by His death He has obtained for us." 

According to this view the Resurrection derives signi- 
ficance from this that the end of Christ's death might 
be attained. The New Testament, however, assigns the 
Resurrection a coordinate place. It would be better to 
subordinate Death to the Resurrection, for we are not 
saved by the crucified Christ as crucified. We are saved by 
the crucified Christ risen from the dead. "If Christ be not 



Q. 45- 



risen," says Paul, "you are yet in your sins." "Then 
they also who are fallen asleep in Him are perished." 1 
Cor. 15. 

The Resurrection is the corner-stone of Christianity. 
The cross certainly is central in Redemption ; but there is 
no virtue in the cross apart from the new life, achieved by 
the complete victory, internally and externally, over the 
whole realm of sin. 

3. "We now by His power are raised up to a new life." 
We denotes the members of Christ. Compare Catechism, 
question 32. 

His members live in Him. He lives in them. They 
and He possess the same life. This is expressed by the 
words, "Raised up to a new life." Compare Coll. 3: 1. 
Rom. 6: 4. 

The new life is the resurrection life of Christ, not His 
sinless life as He lived it under the law, but His sinless, 
holy life, perfected, consummated by the complete triumph 
in His resurrection over sin. Joined to Him in His death, 
we revive, we rise with Him in the image of His resurrec- 
tion. Says the Catechism, "by His power." What power? 
The Resurrection power; not the virtue of the cross separ- 
ately considered, but the virtue of the cross in its conquest 
over sin. Our Resurrection with Christ takes place now. 
We also are "now" raised up. A man regenerate by the 
Holy Ghost is inserted into Christ. I am planted into 
Him, to use the figure of Paul : Grafted into Him. The 
point of the beginning of the new life, of the regenerate, is 
the point of the beginning of the resurrection life. Not at 
the end of the world do I attain it. I have attained it now 
by my membership in Christ. This is undoubtedly the 
teaching of the New Testament, the teaching of our Lord 
and His Apostles, especially Paul. Every word in this 
part of the Answer is true. 

4. The Resurrection of Christ is "to us a sure pledge of 
our Resurrection." The word ' pledge ' may be taken exter- 
nally. It may mean : this historic fact, that Christ rose 
from the dead, assures me that my Resurrection will also 
become a fact. As certain as the first is real so certain will 
the second be real. There is propriety in this aspect of 
meaning; but if we accept the word 'pledge' we have to 
emphasize its internal significance. Christ by union with 
me is the ground of my Resurrection ; living in Him and 
having by my membership in Him the real beginning of 

8 



Q- 45- 



the Resurrection, it cannot be otherwise than that in due 
course of time the ultimate fruit of my union with Him 
will also be realized. 

Re?nark: 1. The. structure of this Answer makes the 
impression that our Resurrection refers mainly to the body ; 
certainly saints will rise in the body, but it is a mistake to 
emphasize the body by itself or separately from the soul. The 
■new life embraces the whole man ; the Resurrection of the 
saints also embraces entire manhood. The believer in the 
wholeness of his new existence, that is, in soul and body, 
will attain to perfection 5 and that perfection implies the 
triumph of the whole man over the realm of sin and all its 
consequences. 

2. It has been said that the Resurrection is past. There 
is an element of truth in this sentiment. It is past in the 
-sense that I have begun to live the resurrection life in 
Christ. The resurrection life is now in process of growth. 
But in so far as the sentiment presumes to deny the Resur- 
rection of the whole man, the body no less than the soul, 
-at the second coming of Christ, it is utterly anti-Christian. 

q. 46. 

The Ascension implies an essential difference between 
heaven and earth. It also implies a change, a transforma- 
tion, in the personal history of Jesus Christ. The Ascension 
has an exterior side. Christ was taken up in sight of 
His disciples ; they saw Him ascend. The ascension has an 
•interior side which is hidden from, the bodily eye. A true 
conception of the Ascension implies both sides of the mys- 
tery. The Ascension is recorded by Luke 24: 51; Acts 1: 9. 
it is not recorded by Matthew or John; it is found in Mark 
16: 19. But as the genuineness of that passage has been 
in dispute during the whole history of the Church, I do 
not lay stress on it. 

1. The ascension was an external visible transaction. It 
Is a historic fact, a real thing, as truly as His Resurrection 
or His Crucifixion. On its external reality, the Catechism, 
like the New Testament, lays stress ; it is important that 
preachers and catechists lay stress on it as a historic fact. 
Let not the truth that its significance turns on its interior 
side, divert your mind from the necessity of the fact as 
externally real. 

9 



Q. 46. 



2. Heaven is to be taken in its proper and eternal sig- 
nificance. It does not mean some distant locality in the 
sidereal heavens. It does not mean Paradise taken in the 
sense of felicity and blessedness. Heaven here means the 
divine realm, the eternal glory in the bosom of which the 
triune God lives. Heaven is eternal as God is eternal.. 
Into this eternal realm of glory the God-man enters. 

3. Emphasis is to be put on the manhood of Jesus, on 
His manhood in union with Deity; but no special emphasis 
on Deity. 

The mystery of the Ascension and its inexpressible signi- 
ficance for the Church, turns on this that Jesus the Son of 
Mary, in all point? a man as we, sin excepted, in organic 
union with the Son of God entered into the divine realm. 
That is the demonstration of Christian immortality, or 
better a demonstration of eternal life, a positive, unchange- 
able communion of love with God, in the person of His 
Son. Accordingly we emphasize the broad difference be- 
tween Heaven and Earth. 

4. In Heaven the God-man continues in our behalf. 
Heb. 7:25. There He as the risen, living One, as Head of 
His Church, is reigning, interceding in our interest, for our 
progress in fellowship and for our ultimate victory. 

5. The present relative position of the Mediator in 
Heaven will cease at the final consummation. He will eter- 
nally be the living medium of communion between the 
God-head and the Church triumphant. But a change in His 
relative position is plainly taught in the Scriptures. Of that 
change, however, it is difficult to speak in definite terms. 
Says Paul, 1 Cor. 15:24: "Then cometh the end, that is 
the perfection of the Resurrection, when He shall deliver 
up the Kingdom to God, even the Father." The same 
truth is expressed somewhat more definitely in verse 28: 
"When all things have been subjected to Him, then shall 
the Son also Himself be subjected to Him that did subject 
all things unto Him, that God may be all in all." 

For this reason the Catechism says: "Continues there 
until He shall come again to judge the living and the 
dead." The entire New Testament looks forward to the 
Second Advent as the final epoch of Messianic History, as- 
the perfection of the new life and of the redemption from 
sin and the kingdom of darkness. 

Remark: The pulpit fails to preach the whole gospel by 
fixing attention almost exclusively on past events in Mes- 
sianic History. 
10 



Q- 46. 



Past events are fundamental, I may say, infinitely im- 
portant, but their full significance they derive from their 
organic connection with that glory that shall be revealed 
to us when the kingdom of God itself will attain to per- 
fection. Christian people lose in healthy enthusiasm and 
uplifting inspiration for lack of due emphasis on this 
aspect of Christianity. 

Qs. 47 and 48. 

I shall consider question 47 in connection with ques- 
tion 48. The two revolve around one issue. They touch 
the apple of discord between the Lutherans and Reformed 
in the sixteenth century. The controversy was compli- 
cated, and conducted with much excited feeling. I shall 
touch only a few salient points. 

Question 47 asks : Is not then Christ with us even unto 
the end of the world? 

This inquiry arises from the fact that Christ in sight of 
His disciples had ascended up to Heaven. In that age 
Heaven and earth were concieved as locally distant and 
separated; not only distant but so widely different as to 
constitution that they excluded each other. If Jesus was 
in Heaven He was not on earth, though He promised to 
be with His people continually. Reformed theologians 
were not able to predicate this presence of His humanity ; 
therefore in the Answer it is said, "according to His human 
nature, He is now not on earth." Lutherans asserted the 
contrary. According to His human nature He is truly and 
really on earth; hence the controversy. 

1. Lutherans and Reformed maintained that Christ was 
true man and true God. In this regard there was no differ- 
ence. The Reformed desired to protect the integrity of the 
human nature, and therefore emphasized its finitude. If 
in • Heaven, immeasurably distant from earth, then the 
humanity could not truly be on earth. 

2. Lntherans laid chief stress on the presence of Christ's 
humanity with His Church. This sprang from the 
Lutheran doctrine on the Lord's Supper. 

The Lutherans affirmed the real presence of the whole 
Christ in this sacramental transaction ; not the presence of 
1 1 



Qs. 47 AND 48. 



Christ as God only, but the presence of Christ as man. To 
this end Lutheran theologians held what was called "Com- 
municatio idiomatum," the communication, of the divine 
attributes to the humanity of Christ. 

3. The Reformed also held and taught communion 
with Christ's humanity in the Lord's Supper. Calvin 
met the difficulty by teaching that by the power of the 
Hoi}' Ghost the believer was, as it were, lifted up. The 
connection and the fellowship of the believer with Christ's 
humanity in the Supper was brought about not by the 
presence of His humanity in the sacramental transaction, 
but by this wonderful act by which the believer on earth 
has fellowship in the Supper with Christ's humanity in 
Heaven. 

4. Question 48 states the objection prefered by Lutherans 
against the Reformed doctrine. Lutherans said: "In this 
way the two natures in Christ are separated from one 
another, if the manhood be not where the Godhead is." 

Answer 48 gives the best answer the Reformers could 
give to this strong allegation. They said: "By no means: 
for since the Godhead is incomprehensible and everywhere 
present, it must follow that it is indeed beyond the man- 
hood which it has assumed, but is yet none the less in the 
same also, and remains personally united to it." 

In other words, the Godhead of Christ is with His 
people, really, truly on earth. According to the Divine 
Majesty, the grace, and Spirit of Christ, He is at no 
time absent from us ; but the union of the Godhead and 
manhood prevails only in Heaven. It is evident that the 
metaphysical difficult} 7 was not overcome. In Heaven the 
Divine and human were not separated; but on earth and 
in the Lord's Supper, the Godhead only was active ; here 
there was a separation. 

5. This issue between Lutherans and Reformed is 
past. Both Churches have transcended it ; there has been 
great progress in theological and philosophical thought. 
There are better views of Divine omnipotence, better views 
of the capacities of manhood. Heaven and earth are not 
now by the foremost theologians of the Lutheran and Re- 
formed Churches held to be locally separated. 

The effect is that this peculiar phase of explanation 
of the Lord's Supper advanced by Calvin is now super- 
seded. The best thinkers of the Reformed Church do 
not affirm that the communicant is by the Holy Ghost 
12 



Os. 47 and 48. 

lifted up into the heavenly realm. Instead the necessity 
and reality of the presence of the whole Christ by the Holy 
Ghost in the sacramental transaction, is freely maintained. 
Some ground for this important modification is even found 
in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper as taught by the 
Heidelberg Catechism. 

6. There has been corresponding modification among 
the Lutheran theologians. I may except some classes, 
those who are now known as extreme symbolists, who hold 
firmly to the Book of Concord, represented both in Ger- 
many and in this country. But the main body of scholars 
among Lutherans would not affirm the communication of 
the attributes of Humanity to the divine nature, as was 
held in the controversy with the Reformed Church. 

On this difficult question the two branches of the Re- 
formation have both in faith and in thought been approach- 
ing each other. Practically, now there is but little and 
unimportant diffierence between the Lutheran Church of 
the General Synod and the Reformed Church on the ques- 
tion of the presence of the Humanity of our Lord in the 
Holy Communion. Indeed, there is one wing of the 
Reformed Church in this country that may be called 
Zwinglian; and there is a wing in the Lutheran Church 
that has reacted from the old Lutheran doctrine just as far 
toward the Zwinglian branch of the Reformed Church. 

Rev. Dr. Schmucker, an eminent minister and professor, 
could not go so far as the teaching of the Heidelberg Cate- 
chism on the Lord's Supper would warrant; but Dr. 
Schmucker has in this respect very few successors in the 
Lutheran Church of America at present. 

Remarks: My advice is, that in teaching the Catechism 
to catechumens, or in preaching to the congregation, these 
two questions be omitted. My reasons are as follows: 

(1) The issue here raised is specific and metaphysical. 
Educated ministers, versed in Doctrinal History, may grasp 
the significance of the issue, but neither laymen of ordi- 
nary intelligence nor catechumens can grasp it. 

(2) This metaphysical issue is passed; it was a question 
of the sixteenth century which extended into the seven- 
teenth, but is not now a living question. The Reformed 
and Lutheran Churches are not on this point arrayed 
against each other as they were then; both Churches in its 
leading representatives and largely the whole body of the 
people, have philosophically and psychologically trans- 
cended the views which gave rise to the issue. 

13 



Qs. 47 and 48. 



(3) A discussion of this issue before a congregation or a 
catechetical class does a wrong both to the Lutheran and 
Reformed Churches. You make the impression that these 
two branches are now joining issue on this metaphysical 
point, just as they did 300 years ago. This is not correct. 
For this reason I advise pastors to pass by these two knotty 
questions and answers. In affirming that the Reformed 
and the Lutherans have both transcended this issue made 
in the latter half of the sixteenth century I do not imply 
that these Churches are now in harmony; there are varia- 
tions in the methods and doctrines of these Churches, but 
these variations are different from those prevailing in the 
sixteenth century. 

Q- 49- 

Observe the force of the question. It puts emphasis on 
the Ascension. It assumes that spiritual good comes to us 
not from our Lord's death only; but especially also from His 
Ascension. The Ascension of Christ, therefore, is a necessity 
in the economy of Redemption, no less than His death. The 
reason for the ascension is two-fold. It lies in the Mediator 
himself. The ascension is related to Him; for Him it is 
a necessity. The other reason pertains to His people. On 
our account it is needful that we do not remain upon earth 
in the natural body, but that we leave this world and go to 
the Father. Our Catechism lays stress on the second 
reason. The benefit we receive from the Ascension is 
three-fold: (1) He becomes our Advocate. (2) His Ascen- 
sion is the ground of our ascension. (3) By virtue of His 
advocacy we are assured of our ultimate triumph. 

1. The Incarnate Son in heaven is our Advocate. He 
represents us. He answers for us who are guilty. • He is 
the living bond of life communion between the Father 
and us. 

2. We have a two-fold form for expressing the same dis- 
tinctive truth. He is in " the presence of the Father ;" where 
the Father is He is. The pronoun "He" designates the 
Son of Man in union with God. The other form of ex- 
pression is, "in Heaven." These two expressions intensify 
the force with which the Catechism asserts the reality of 
the ascension; the reality of the Son of Man living in and 
with God the Father in His own glory. 

14 



Q. 49- 



3. Jesus Christ, our Advocate, is clothed in human nature, 
veritable human nature, which the Catechism here denotes 
by the words "our flesh in heaven." Mankind redeemed, 
sanctified, perfected in the person of Christ, has trans- 
cended the entire mundane sphere, overcome all limitations, 
and become qualified in ideal perfection for abode in 
Heaven. Eternal life, when negatively considered, called 
immortality, is a demonstrated fact. 

4. Jesus, the God-man in Heaven, the Catechism says, 
is the sure pledge that He will also take us up to Him- 
self. Pledge is a rather external word, not the best that 
could be used : this deficiency, however, is relieved by the 
figure which the Catechism adopts from St. Paul. 

Pledge means the assurance of Heaven, to us now on 
earth. As certainly as Jesus is there, so certainly shall we 
also ascend to Heaven. The marrow, however, of the 
truth of the ascended Christ relatively to us, is expressed 
by the figure of speech, Head, which implies that the 
Church militant is His body ; believers are His members. 
Between the head and the members of the body there is an 
internal, vital indissoluble connection in the sphere of 
nature and in the sphere of grace. In the spiritual king- 
dom of God there is by the Holy Ghost, between Jesus in 
Heaven and us on earth, a connection, which is vital and 
indescribable : The Spirit dwells in Him and in us. As 
His members we are His heirs, heirs with Him of God. 

The Catechism says, "take us up to Himself," not to 
heaven, not its felicity, but to Himself. This accords with 
the teaching of Jesus, John 14: "I will come again and 
take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also." It 
is Jesus Christ, it is living communion by the Spirit with 
Him, that makes heaven ; when its communion is final, 
perfect, then we attain to the perfection of heaven. 

What evidence have we now that Christ in heaven is our 
inheritance? The Catechism answers this question in the 
third part, "He sends us his Spirit," etc. Compare Col. 

The word "earnest" embodies the import of a figure of 
speech prevalent in the Holy Scriptures : it is another word 
for the first fruits of the harvest ; the ears of grain that first 
ripen are an evidence of the harvest in store for us, and as 
such furnish us evidence of plentitude. The Holy Spirit 
of Christ, including the fruits of His gracious influences in 
the Church, are first fruits of the final spiritual harvest, 
lience called earnest. 
15 



Q. 49- 



The Spirit in us, the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, 
hope, are evidences of the vital bond, binding Him to us 
and us to Him ; by the Spirit's power we seek those things 
which are above ; by no other power may we thus seek ; 
depraved human nature does not seek the things above 
where Christ sitteth, nor can any art, or science, or philo- 
sophy, or culture, endow us either with the capacity or 
the desire to seek the things above. The union and com- 
munion with Christ, the devotion with which we labor for 
Christ glorified, and for the honor of His kingdom, is the 
beginning of the heavenly Life, is the first fruit of the 
harvest; and to us the assurance that we also shall in Christ 
ascend up and be where He is. 

Q. 50. 

The purpose of the ascension and session of Jesus at 
God's right hand is two-fold. 

The one relates to Himself, the other to His Church, 
especially in her relation to sin. As regards Himself, Jesus 
ascended to Heaven, inasmuch as the ascension is the ne- 
cessary end and conclusion of His mediatorship. He must 
return to His Father, or fail to realize ideal manhood. His 
entire life in the flesh looked forward, on the one hand, 
to complete victory over sin and Satan, on the other hand y 
to the realization of the design of His incarnation. To be 
the Mediator in the true sense, He must become the perfect 
Man, He must attain to final glorification. This must be 
irrespectively of particular benefits that this one or that 
one may derive from His ascension. 

The other purpose relates immediately to us. His glori- 
fication has a purpose concerning the whole human race ; 
all men who believe are designed to share ideal, glorified 
manhood. It is this two-fold aspect of the ascension which 
the Catechism emphasizes, and to this an exposition of the 
answer will be limited. 

1. Christ ascended into Heaven "for this end." The as- 
cension had a purpose relative to fallen mankind, a purpose 
which Jesus kept steadily before His eye through His entire 
mediatorial work on earth. That end embraced His Head- 
ship or the assertion of His Headship over the Church. 
16 



Q. 50. 



Our Catechism says: "That He might there appear as 
Head of His Church." In heaven He asserts His author- 
ity and power as Head of the Church. His Kingship 
attains its acme not in His resurrection and ascension, but 
in His session at God's right hand. Scriptural speech on 
this matter is a figure drawn from oriental monarchies. 
When the emperor was on his throne the highest place of 
authority and dominion next to him, was the seat or place 
at his right hand. "Right hand" in scriptural speech ex- 
presses what our Lord means when He says, "All authority 
is given me in heaven and on earth," Math. 28:19. To 
maintain, to exercise this authority in the interest of His 
chosen ones, is the end, under this view of it, of the ascen- 
sion. 

3. By Him, the ascended One, the Father governs all 
things. The expression "all things" is adopted from 
Scripture. It is used by our Lord, by the Apostles. "All 
things" denote universal dominion; dominion over all 
realms in the first creation, dominion over the new crea- 
tion in all its relations conformably to Scripture. The 
Catechism teaches not that God as God governs the world. 

This is a very important point of difference, very often 
overlooked. There is no Divine government of the world, 
using these words in their strict meaning. The govern- 
ment of the world is Christological, Divine-human. It is 
not God who, according to Christianity, is the final judge 
•of all men, but God as manifested, revealed in the person 
of the Son of Man ; hence the New Testament names the 
Son of Man, not the Son of God, as Judge at the final day. 
If we take in the whole of the New Testament truth we 
shall come to see that the life of the Incarnate Son has 
cosmic significance. 

Q- 51- 

The Catechism does not ask, what is the glory of our 
Head? but in accordance with its ruling habit it asks, 
what benefit do we receive from His glory? 

The answer is two-fold: By His Holy Spirit He sheds 
forth heavenly gifts in us; then He by His power defends 
and preserves us against all enemies. The first part of the 
answer denotes the personal gain to us as Christ's mem- 
bers; the second touches our relations outwardly, that is, to 
our enemies. 

17 



1. By His Holy Spirit He sheds forth heavenly gifts in 
us. The Spirit here named is the Spirit of the God-man glor- 
ified, not simply the third member of the God-head; not the 
Spirit as animating fallen humanity at large; not as active 
in the Old Testament economy, nor even as living and 
working in Jesus, during His humiliation in the flesh. 
Holy Spirit embraces the truth of all these negatives, but 
the truth culminates in the final fact that Humanity, 
regenerated in Jesus, triumphant over the kingdom of dark- 
ness, has been and is by the Spirit ideally perfected in 
heaven. The Spirit going forth from the perfected God- 
man, bearing and communicating to us the perfections of 
that incarnate life, is here spoken of by the Catechism. 
Gal. 4 : 5. 6. Hence the pronoun His is emphatic. 

2. By His Holy Spirit He sheds forth heavenly gifts. 
Heaven denotes that transcendent, perfect realm centering 
in the Son of Man glorified. It does not mean the eternal 
heaven of the triune God apart from the incarnate Son. It 
denotes those gifts proceeding from the perfected status of 
Jesus in the presence of His Father in heaven. The gifts 
are the gifts of the cross of the glorified Son of Man. 
These gifts are not bestowed according to a divine decree, 
but Christ's Spirit sheds forth those gifts in us. 

3. His Holy Spirit does not shed forth heavenly gifts in 
all men, but in us, His members. To receive heavenly 
gifts pre-supposes and involves vital union to Christ, our 
Head ; in uregenerate men, not members of Christ, there 
is no capacity for these gifts. This doctrine is in full ac- 
cord not only with all Reformed teaching, but responsive 
to all the teachings of the New Testament. 

4. Christ, by the power of the Spirit, does two things ; He 
defends, and He preserves us. The one is rather negative,, 
the other positive. The words "by his power," do not 
mean immediately by Christ's power, but by the power of 
Christ's Spirit. The Spirit of Christ is the agency through 
whom the virtue of Christ glorified avails for us. 

*5. He defends us ; the word, defends, looks at the antag- 
onism, the warfare waged against us by enemies. Christ by 
the Spirit wards off attacks from the kingdom of darkness, 
whether they come immediately from evil spirits, or are 
mediated through human and natural agencies. The word 
preserves is more positive ; Christ by the Spirit, nourishes 
us and thus keeps us in the strength of communion with 
Himself ; whereby we have spiritual ability to abide in the 
faith and persevere, onward to the end. 
18 



Q. 5i- 



Remarks : i. When we teach that heavenly gifts by the 
Spirit, as taught by the Catechism, are shed forth in Christ's 
members and in no others, we do not mean that the agency 
of the Spirit excludes the world at large. Through the 
word preached and by other agencies the Spirit of Christ 
touches and moves unregenerate men, but unregenerate 
men touched, moved deeply, wrought upon by the Spirit, 
do not share the heavenly gifts spoken of by the Catechism. 

2. Heavenly gifts are for the unregenerate a possible at- 
tainment, and designed for them through repentance and 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So long, however, as men 
of the world are not responsive to the Spirit, they remain 
strangers to these heavenly gifts, though designed for them 
as for Christ's members. 

Q. 52. 

The second Coming of Christ is to be studied under a two- 
fold aspect. It has significance and value in itself ; nay, 
the second Advent is the culmination, the completion 
of the first advent. The first advent would not have been 
if the second were not an essential part of Christianity. 
Christian people need to contemplate that final epoch for 
its own sake; its worth, its glory, lies in its relation to the 
whole scheme of redemption. 

The other aspect of the second advent pertains to us 
as subjects of redemption. The same remark made on 
question 50 is applicable here. Our Catechism does not 
dwell mainly on the first view, but on the second. It 
does not ask, "What dost thou understand by the coming 
again of Christ to judgment?" 

The question as here presented is entirely legitimate, but 
on account of the omission of the deeper and more signifi- 
cant truth, its tendency is toward one-sidedness in Christian 
doctrine and Christian experience. 

The answer is rich and forcible. The gist of it may be 
given in these words: "I look for the self-same one to 
come again as judge from Heaven." 

1. For the second coming of Christ, the Catechism looks 
in hope and with joy. It is not an object of dread ; instead, 
it is a good, the noblest good in the personal history of 

19 



Q. 52. 



Jesus Christ. Why? Because it consummates the wonderful 
exhibition of divine love, first announced in Eden and 
actually begun in the birth of Jesus; hence the words, " with 
uplifted head." The Church, notwithstanding its persecu- 
tions, is not to be downcast and fearful. The seeming 
strength and bitter violence of her enemies shall not abate 
her courage ; but in the midst of the battle, she is to look 
onward and forward with confidence and firm hope. 

2. For whom am I to look? "The self-same one who 
has before offered Himself for me to the judgment of God 
and removed from me all curse." Notice the force of the 
words: the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth, the rejected 
man of sorrows who was crucified between two thieves ; it 
is He, the self-same One; compare Math. 25, who shall 
come again as judge from Heaven. 

3. Who shall come? Our L,ord says, John 5, because He 
is the Son of Man authority to judge is committed to 
Him. What qualifies Him to judge? His incarnation; 
profound humility; atoning sacrifice; His descent into 
hades ; His triumphant resurrection. The mediatorial life 
which He lived and which He perfected in our humanity 
— that fits Him to be judge. The new Man, the second 
Adam, one with God in the person of the only-begotten 
Son — He has all authority in heaven and on earth. 

4. The second part of the answer looks at the results of 
the second coming. These results, as represented by the 
Catechism are in the first place negative. My enemies and 
His enemies He will cast into everlasting condemnation. 

The issue of the second advent for the wicked is the 
second death. Condemnation presupposes guilt. The second 
death is not a misfortune, not merely a calamity, but a con- 
dition which turns on the will of the wicked. 

They are Christ's enemies. First and foremost, they have 
antagonized Him ; and toward Him they continue to stand 
in an antagonistic attitude. Not from ignorance, nor from 
weakness, but from aversion to good. Condemnation is 
the necessary opposite condition; and it will continue as 
long as aversion to the good, antagonism to Jesus Christ, 
continues. 

The second death follows the second advent; and is 
therefore to be distinguished from that intermediate period 
of death which precedes the Resurrection. 

5. For the righteous the issue of the second coming will 
be their complete triumph, the perfection of the new 
life. "He shall take me to Himself." These words are 

20 



Q. 52. 



fully warranted by the New Testamant. "I go," said our 
Lord, "to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come 
again and receive you to myself, that where I am you may 
be also." The condition of the righteous following the 
final judgment is other than their condition during the in- 
termediate period of bliss. To be with Himself expresses the 
highest conception on the one side of triumph over evil, 
and on the other side of the possible life-communion of 
love with God in Him. 

6. To be with Him as He is with the Father is heaven. 
It is the final heaven, that state of perfect human activity 
in the fellowship of Christ which constitutes the ultimate 
end of the creation of the first man, but especially the ulti- 
mate end of the new creation in Jesus Christ. Therefore 
the Catechism uses the words heavenly joy and glory. Joy 
is the conscious, unchanging possession of the highest con- 
ceivable good ; the good that absolutely fulfills all possible 
aspirations of original manhood, particularly the aspirations 
of the new creation in Christ. Glory expresses the full, free 
manifestation, the outflowing or the revelation of what the 
new life in Christ by the Spirit is. 

Remarks: 1. The final judgment is an object of hope. 
Why? Because it is the consummation of good, considered 
negatively, regarding moral evil, regarding death and all 
miseries caused by sin. The judgment is the final emanci- 
pation. Considered positively, the consummation of the 
life-communion of love with God the Father in Jesus 
through the Spirit. It is a consummation so rich, so 
mighty, so transcendent, that the mind staggers in the at- 
tempt to portray it. 

It proclaims the judgment as a good, therefore an object 
of desire and longing. If the signs of the times indicate 
the approaching end, the pulpit should anticipate the end 
with uplifted head. To preach the anticipation is strength- 
ening, ennobling and purifying in its influence. 

2. Only to the finally impenitent is the judgment an 
object of terror; not to the weak, not to the unlearned, not to 
the simple minded, but to the enemies of Jesus Christ. 
Much harm is done by setting forth the judgment, as if it 
were an impending crisis of evil to the Church. 

3. Preach on the judgment in the spirit of this answer. 
Look at it predominantly on its positive side ; that is its 
real significance, that its primary intention. The effect of 
the judgment on the wicked is incidental, undesigned ; yet 
necessary because of persistent wickedness. 

21 



Q. 53- 



Of God the Holy Ghost. 

The question is broad, because it touches both the person 
of the Holy Ghost and His work in Christ's members. 
The answer accordingly is two-fold: (1) It teaches who the 
Holy Ghost is, as to His person and relations in the God- 
head; (2) the answer considers the relation of the Holy 
Ghost to us the members of Christ, and to the work which 
the Holy Ghost performs in us. 

1. What dost thou believe? Believe is emphatic. The 
Holy Ghost is the object of faith; the eye of the regenerate 
soul sees Him revealed and given by the incarnate Son. 
Him (the Spirit) we learn to know, not by secular learn- 
ing, not by philosophy, not by scientific induction, but by 
spiritual discernment, by an intuitive act, predicable only 
of the "new many 

No branch of Christianity is so little accessible to the 
mind of the flesh as the person and work of the Holy 
Ghost. One great reason is that the Holy Ghost is the 
acme of the revelation and redemption. His advent is the 
pivot on which turns all right knowledge and all godly 
living. 

2. The Spirit is co-eternal with God the Father and the 
Son. What is God? 

The New Testament answer to this question is this : God 
is the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost ; not God is 
the Father, God is the Son, nor -yet God is the Spirit. 
Either of these three particulars by itself is radically de- 
fective, but each, Father, Son and Spirit, enter into the 
economy and the structure of revelation and redemption. 
Wanting either the Spirit, or the Son, or the Father, the 
idea of Christianity is radically false. Accordingly the 
Catechism says, "The Spirit is co-eternal;" not that God 
the Father is the Spirit, nor that God the Son is the Spirit ; 
but the Spirit is a member eternally of the God-head. 

3. The Spirit is given unto me. The Catechism refers 
to Pentecost. From the Father in and through the glori- 
fied Son the Spirit comes ; He comes as the bearer of the 
crucified Christ risen and glorified. Thus given the Spirit 
is the bond, the perpetual living bond between Christ glori- 
fied and me. This truth also is primarily the object of 
faith. The Spirit in me affects my feelings, my thoughts, 
my conduct, the whole habit of my life. But neither 

22 



Q- 53- 



the habit of my life, nor my conduct, nor my feeling, is 
the test of the truth that the Spirit* is given to me; that I 
know from and through my faith in the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ. The gift of the Spirit to me is a necessary fact if I 
am baptized into Christ ; though if I lack the right ethical 
•experience I may fail to realize the design of the gift of the 
Spirit. 

4. This clause, " is also given unto me," teaches a general 
truth on which firmly we are to rely. The following 
clauses set forth the operation and effects of this truth. 
These immediate effects of the Spirit possessed by me are 
three-fold : (1) By true faith the Spirit makes me a partaker 
of Christ ; (2) sustaining this relation of faith to Christ, the 
Spirit comforts me ; (3) the possession of the Spirit is an 
abiding possession. 

5. The Holy Ghost makes me by true faith a partaker 
•of Christ and all His benefits. This clause is important ; 
the two primary elements entering into the Christian sal- 
vation are here united. The one is the Holy Ghost ; the 
Spirit given on the day of Pentecost, makes me a partaker 
of Christ. Not God the Father, not God the Son, nor God 
the Spirit simply contemplated as the third member of the 
Godhead ; but the Spirit as the bearer of the virtue of the 
God-man enthroned in Heaven. It is He, not I, He the 
Spirit makes me a partaker of Christ. He, the Spirit, 
effects this good through my faith. Says the Catechism : 
u By a true faith the Spirit makes me a partaker." It is I 
that believe, not the Spirit in my stead. Faith is my 
act. It turns on my will. This is the human, the sub- 
jective side of personal salvation. This clause emphasizes 
and unites both. The two things are by the New Testa- 
ment conjoined. Here the Catechism clearly sets forth the 
answer to the question : How do I become a member of 
Christ? The answer is two-fold. First, I become a member 
of Christ by the Holy Spirit ; secondly, I become a member 
of Christ by true faith. If either be wanting I am not, in 
the New Testament sense, a member of Christ. Observe 
the order in which His benefits are taught. The words are 
not, first, the " benefits " of Christ, then Christ Himself. The 
words are Christ and all His benefits. The possession of 
Christ conditions our interest in His benefits. Forgiveness 
of sins, is possible to those only who have Christ by faith. 
Answer 20 is parallel to this clause. See Answers 49, 

6. The Spirit " comforts me." " Comfort" is to be held in 

23 



Q- 53- 



close connection with all the statements which precede. 
The pronoun ine means a man regenerated by the Holy 
Ghost who from the heart believes in Jesus Christ. Com- 
fort is limited to him ; and the comfort is Christian comfort. 
It is the spiritual strength in our weakness, the assurance 
that we shall be guided by God's wisdom and love, which 
grows forth from the relation which Ave bear to God in His 
incarnate Son. Comfort is the result of the truth taught in 
the previous clause, which says : "I am a partaker of Christ 
and all His benefits." By the Spirit I am in vital relation 
to the Head of the Church. I grow up in this vital relation. 
In this relation I have comfort. 

7. The Holy Ghost shall " abide with me" forever. The 
first person is used, but it designates every individual Chris- 
tian. 

Q- 54- 

The gist of this answer is expressed in the words: "The 
Son of God gathers for Himself unto everlasting life, a 
chosen communion." 

1. "Son of God." The Catechism gives our glorified 
Lord His divine title; not Christ, His official title, not Son of 
Man, a name whereby He is fitted to be judge ; but Son of 
God, in order to emphasize the immediate eternal relation 
of the Head of the Church to the being of the Godhead. 

2. The Son of God "gathers a chosen communion." Xot 
the will of God as God, not God in the person of the Father, 
but the will of God in the person of His Son, is active in 
electing from the whole human race, the members of His 
mystical body. The definition of the Church, as given by the 
Catechism, is given by the one word chosen communion. 
"Chosen" turns on the will of God, not merely on the will 
of man. " Communion," etymologically, means two parties 
living by reciprocal interaction. The one party is the Son 
of God incarnate, the Head. The other is we. His mem- 
bers. The communion is from Christ, an impartation of 
His virtue and His gifts to us, His members. The other 
side is our fellowship with Him. The communion, living 
in this fellowship of Christ, the Head with us, and of us 
in fellowship with Him, is the Church. 

3. This communion the Son of God not only gathers, 
but "defends and preserves." "Defence" is negative. It is 
the work of Christ in the Spirit by which enemies are met, 

24 



Q. 54- 



warded off, overcome. " Preserve" is more positive. It 
denotes the work of Christ, whereby He nourishes us, 
strengthens us, ever communicates of His divine-human 
fulness to us, whereby we are kept, living the new life in 
the exercise of true faith. 

The activity of our Lord, expressed by these three words, 
gathers, defends, preserves, embraces the chosen com- 
munion in its totality, the past, present and future. 

4. The communion is chosen and preserved "in the unity 
of the true faith." True faith is the objective truth as 
affirmed by and organized into the Apostolic Creed. The 
Church is one in this faith. The life of Christ, active in 
the communion as a whole and in each member, on the 
one hand by the Spirit, on the other by faith, is the foun- 
dation and law of this unity. 

The only exception to the general confession of this one 
faith is that the Greek Church rejects what is known as the 
filioque clause, added to the Nicene Constantinopolitan 
creed by the Council of Toledo, 589. 

5. The Son of God chooses the "communion" from "the 
whole human race." That expresses the extent of area over 
which the Church is designed to reign. These words 
answer to the command : " Go ye, therefore, and make dis- 
ciples of all nations." These two expressions, "all nations" 
and "the whole human race" are commensurate. In point 
of time, the activity of the -Son prevails from its begin- 
ning to its end. This activity is going on and will con- 
tinue, embracing all nations, until the Messianic ages have 
run their course, and the kingdom of God on earth has at- 
tained to full maturity. Then the kingdom, the Church, 
this chosen communion, will be fit, spiritually qualified, to 
transcend the intermediate heaven, and rising with the 
Lord, enter into the final heaven. 

6. The final truth of the answer is personal. I am a 
living member of this communion, and ever shall remain a 
member. As a member I draw my life, the support of the 
new creation, from Christ in this communion. The Son 
of God ever with increasing power communicates Himself 
to me. The bond of fellowship becomes stronger and 
stronger. It cannot be broken by death, nor shall any 
enemy be able to pluck me out of His hand. John 10 : 28- 

Remark : Two things need here to be emphasized. On the 
one hand, a correct conception of the internal, vital relation 
between Christ and His members. This is a new fellow- 

25 



Q. 54- 



ship, not only different from the fallen Adamic race, bnt 
qualitatively different from the relation of the Jews to God 
prior to the advent of the Messiah. There is a chasm 
between the Jewish and Christian order of life notwith- 
standing the fact that the two dispensations are parts of one 
supernatural Messianic revelation. 

The other point is that, in this fellowship believers have 
the forgiveness of sins. As their life is different so the article 
of death for them is different. Their entire history, start- 
ing from a new principle, moves on a different plane, so 
that believers are not only practically different, but also 
constitutionally different. 

Q. 55- 

Observe that the article on Communion of Saints follows 
the article on the Church, and that follows the article on 
the Holy Spirit. This is the ideal order. Of these three 
things we may say : No Church, no Communion of Saints ; 
again, no Holy Spirit, no Christian Church. The Cate- 
chism (by implication) expounds the Communion of Saints 
in this objective relation. 

Two things especially enter into the answer: 1. That 
believers all and every one, as members of Christ, have part 
in Christ, in all His treasures and gifts. 2. That each one 
must feel himself bound to use his gifts to the advantage 
of other members. The first part deals with the reciprocal 
relation between Christ and His members. The second is 
a consequence of the first, and deals with the relation which 
Christ's members bear to one another. 

1. Believers "have part" in Christ. Here the subjective 
or personal aspect of Christianity is emphasized. The 
relation turns on my faith. The relation between Christ 
and the baptized believers is in kind wholly different from 
the relation of Christ to such as are unbaptized and unbe- 
lieving. Between Christ and believers in the Spirit the 
relation is immediate. The two constitute the Church. 
Hence the Catechism speaks of believers not as Church 
members, but as Christ's members. Being His members 
they, like branches, have part in the life, the virtue, the 
strength of the vine. See Q. 32. 

2. Having part in Him, believers share "His treasures 

26 



Q- 55- 



and gifts." "Gifts" denote spiritual blessings given to us, 
and by us received. "Treasures" denote that unfathomable 
richness of spiritual good in reserve in Him. From this 
treasury continually are proceeding new forms of blessing, 
and we become partakers of these treasures in proportion 
to our strength of faith and spiritual capacity. 

3. This fellowship with Christ is affirmed of all believers, 
"all and every one." There is no difference on account of 
race, nationality, rank, age, weakness or strength. A leaf 
of a branch of the vine is as really a member of it as the 
cluster of grapes. 

4. Being members of Christ, sharing each and all His 
treasures and gifts, believers are " members" of one another. 
They differ widely in position as to office and sphere of 
activity, yet by a universal bond they are one, have the 
same life, salvation, faith, hope. "One Lord, one faith, one 
baptism, one God and Father of all." Eph. 4: 4-6; Rom. 

5. On this ground a Christian is bound to use his gifts, 
not primarily for himself, but for the temporal and spiritual 
good of other members. 

Q 56. 

The Answer is twofold : Emphasizing forgiveness under 
its negative aspect, relatively to sins and sinfulness ; devel- 
oping the positive side of forgiveness, implied by the first 
part. 

1. The grammatical subject of the Answer is God, Of 
Him forgiveness is predicated. The words, "no more re- 
member" express a richer evangelical truth than the word 
"pardon." 

2. Forgiveness pertains to the judicial relation of the 
wrong-doer to God. Wrong-doing incurs penalty. Pen- 
alty is primarily ethical and spiritual. It is the condemna- 
tion adjudged to the wrong-doer, and works in the sphere 
of personality. To forgive is to take away or withdraw the 
sentence of condemnation. The words, "no more remem- 
ber" imply not only that the penalty ceases, but that the 
wrong done by us is, as it were, on the part of God no 
longer known or felt. His attitude to the transgressor is 
that which would prevail if there had been no transgres- 
sion. Is. 43 : 25. 

3. Forgiveness relates to transgression. The guilt in- 

27 



Q. 56. 



curred is removed. The false ethical and judicial attitude 
of fallen mankind toward God puts mankind under God's 
condemnation and displeasure. That displeasure rests on 
the race as a whole. A believer, by accepting Christ, 
comes to stand in a new, right relation to God. In this 
relation the displeasure or condemnation of God ceases to 
rest upon him, though a perverted human nature may still 
influence his life and character. 

4. The ground of this forgiving grace is Christ's satis- 
faction. 

During the Reformation period, as also during the cen- 
turies since, emphasis was put on the negative aspect of 
Christianity, and of the atoning sacrifice. The necessity 
of the new life, of the new creation in Christ, did not 
receive equal emphasis. Satisfaction means that the penal 
demands of violated law are met by the suffering and 
death of Christ. The active obedience of Christ did not 
enter really into the essence of the atonement. This neg- 
ative phase of the atonement is scriptural and Christian, but 
it needs to be complemented by another truth in great 
part overlooked. The law is satisfied not only by suffering- 
its penalty, but by positive obedience. The doing of the 
will of God in the life, in the whole life of Christ, belongs 
to the process whereby the righteous God and sinful man 
were made one. 

5. " Forgiveness' ' we must emphasize chiefly as involv- 
ing the judicial relation between God and man. The exist- 
ing physical condition of mankind is involved in sin ; and 
ultimately all the consequences of violated divine and 
human law will be overcome, not however at once, but only 
in process of time. When the law of the new life shall 
utterly overcome and set aside the disorganization of nature, 
of the whole physical constitution, the believer will be really 
emancipated from these consequences of transgression.. 
Forgiveness, therefore, anticipates the Second Coming, the 
Resurrection, and with it complete triumph over the entire 
realm of sin. Hence the Creed passes from forgiveness to 
the resurrection. 

6. The second part emphasizes the positive, new attitude 
and relation of the believer, a member of Christ, to God. 
As God will no more remember my sins, He "graciously 
imparts to me the righteousness of Christ." By righteous- 
ness is meant the sacrificial merits of Jesus. He fulfilled 
the law by expiating the guilt of sin, bearing the penalty* 
He stands before God approved and accepted. Bv faith 

28 



Q- 56. 



believers receive the righteousness of Christ. This right- 
eousness is not externally set to our account. It is not 
imparted in the sense of the Decrees of the Synod of Dort, 
nor in the sense of the Westminster Standards, but we are 
really, truly possessed of righteousness in Christ. 

7. Connected with this teaching is the assurance "that I 
may never more come into condemnation." I in Christ am 
In Him at peace with God, released from condemnation, 
the recipient of His love, and His child. Therefore in 
Christ I am heir of eternal life. 

Remarks: 1. The evangelical preacher should declare to 
- all true believers positively and unconditionally that their 
sins are forgiven. Do not teach that if they live and work 
faithfully, in the end God will have mercy and they will be 
accepted. That has in it a touch of Romanism. I am 
. accepted on account of what Jesus Christ is and of what He 
has done. I have a right to hear the free gospel, a right 
to be declared free from the condemnation of sin. 

2. There are two opinions or theories. 1st, that men 
have to work and strive and pray in order that they may 
attain to acceptance, joy and freedom. That is Romish at 
heart. The other is that of free, sovereign grace. I 
accept Jesus Christ, and being in Him I am God's child. 
In the joy and freedom and love of a child, I live and toil 
and work, laying my life an offering of thankfulness on the 
altar of sacrifice. That is Evangelic Protestant. 

Q. 57- 

The Catechism emphasizes the "body." The body will 
be raised up. On this the Answer hinges. After this life, 
that is, in the article of natural death, the soul immediately 
will be taken up to Christ, its Head, not the body. The 
body will be laid in the ground, earth to earth, dust to 
dust, ashes to ashes. In the end, at the Second Coming, 
the body will be raised up and again united with the soul. 
This implies that the soul, separated from the body, is blessed 
with Christ. Though it be blessed with Christ through 
many ages of time, the body shall be raised, refashioned and 
glorified with the soul. In this reunion the body will be 
like unto "the glorious body of Christ." 

This sentiment, though prevailing from the third century 
• onward through the Middle Ages to the Reformation, and 

29 



Q. 57- 



even down to onr day, does not, in my opinion, harmonize 
with the teaching of the New Testament, especially with 
the philosophy of the Resurrection as developed by Paul 
in 1 Cor. 15. But the difference does not imply that the 
resurrection is less real than Jerome taught or than the 
Reformed Catechisms teach. A reaction against defective 
conceptions of the resurrection is false when it overlooks 
and denies the fundamental truth which has always been 
affirmed and always has reigned in the Christian Church. 

Remarks'. 1. The resurrection is the counterpart of 
death. Death is the fruit of sin. Sin has its seed in the 
spirit. The spirit is deepest in man. Man being an or- 
ganism, the spirit reigns in and over the wholeness of 
manhood. Sin, a false self-assertion against God of the 
spirit, poisons, disorganizes, pervades, reigns over, the whole 
manhood of man, hence death. 

2. Death is an epoch in man's history ; but an abnormal 
epoch, its nature and character being derived from sin. 
Under another view, death is the ultimate penalty of sin. 
Death, as an epoch, is a point or node of life through which 
the individual man passes. But the epoch is the beginning 
of a post-earthly period of the sinfulness of "the natural 
man." Hence death reigns over the entire history of fallen 
humanity. 

3. Death is predicable of the whole man. Not the body 
only, but the wholeness of manhood is under the reigning 
power and abnormal force of sin. Man, therefore, in body, 
soul and spirit dies. 

4. The resurrection is likewise to be predicated, not of 
the body separated from the soul and spirit, but of the 
manhood of man. Jesus, in the wholeness of his constitu- 
tion, offered himself on the cross, overcame death and was 
revived. But His resurrection was a transition from the 
natural, from the earthly, to the super-earthly, super- 
mundane realm. This is the type and law of the resurrec- 
tion of the righteous. The new man in Christ, in the 
wholeness of his constitution, spirit, soul and body, shall go 
forth from the intermediate period (in the New Testament 
called Hades) into the final heaven at the second coming of 
Christ. 

5. As sin and death are predicable of the whole man, so 
in Christ is the resurrection from the dead. That resurrec- 
tion is to be studied and understood solely in the light of 

30 



Q. 57. 



the resurrection of the God-man. It involves a thorough 
change in condition and relations. 

6. The words in the article of the Creed, "the resur- 
rection of the body," are not to be criticised, but to be rightly 
interpreted. "Body" is a figure of speech in which the 
part stands for the whole; a common one in the New 
Testament. The body will be raised up, fashioned after 
the glorified body of Jesus Christ; but the body includes 
the whole of man. 

I do not, however, ignore the historical fact that when 
the Creed was in process of formation belief in the resur- 
rection of the material body was the marked feature in the 
doctrine of the resurrection from the dead. 

Q. 58. 

We have the gist of the Answer in this clause: "I shall 
after this life possess complete bliss." It is the blessedness 
of heaven rather than the heavenly life itself which the 
Answer develops. Future bliss is immediately connected 
with present joy. 

1 . The Answer moves in the sphere of personal experience. 
The genius of the Creed, however, emphasizes not primarily 
an experience, but a mystery, the final reality, belonging to 
the new creation in Christ Jesus. Of course the life ever- 
lasting is something to be possessed and enjoyed by the 
believer. 

2. Very correctly the Catechism connects two things, 
the present and the future, the joy in Christ which I now 
have and the complete bliss which hereafter I shall possess. 
The two things are one possession. But one order of 
eternal life is set before us in the New Testament. It is 
the new life in Jesus Christ, the communion of love with 
God, quickened by the Holy Ghost, through my faith in 
the incarnate Son, who is the beginning, the fountain of 
this new life-communion of love with God. 

3. Now I have the beginning. I, by faith which works 
through love, possess Jesus Christ. He lives in me, I live 
in Him. In as far as I really appropriate Him, I share His 
life. I have joy, for spiritual joy springs from the spiritual 
good which is in me by the possession of Christ, the highest 
possible Good. This is a beginning, the first fruits of the 
possession that I shall hereafter enjoy. 

4. What I shall after this earthly life possess is " complete 

3i 



Q. 58. 



bliss." Bliss is a stronger term than joy, but both are of 
the same kind. The difference lies in this, that when I 
have attained unto the resurrection of the dead, when I 
shall be glorified, when my whole new being shall be in 
final state of transformation, fully fashioned according to the 
image of my Lord and Saviour, then I shall have new 
capacities, new positive fitness, and I shall be capable 
of taking in more of the infinite fulness of that highest 
Good, which is Jesus Christ ; and as I possess higher, more 
perfect fitness, it will be possible for the incarnate Son to 
reveal to me and in me the untold riches of His glory. 
In this sense I may speak of the culmination of joy, of the 
" bliss" which our Catechism calls "complete." 

5. In proof of the doctrine taught by the Answer the 
Catechism quotes 1 Cor. 2 : 9. But the application is not 
valid. This defect does not, however, imply that the truth 
set forth in the Answer is in the least affected. 

This passage is a quotation by Paul from Isaiah. As 
used by Paul it teaches not that the blessedness ol the 
Christian transcends human conception, but that Christianity 
itself, or Christian truth, can not be discovered or known by 
human power. 

Q. 59. 

" All this" refers to the whole of the Creed, including all 
its articles. I believe all these articles. I believe them as 
they have been set forth by the Catechism. 

What is the import of the question? The Answer 
is exceedingly rich; every word is full of meaning. It 
would be difficult to express more undoubted evangelic 
truth so closely, so forcibly, in fewer words. I, a believer, 
am " righteous." Righteous before whom? "Before God," 
standing in His presence. I am not promised righteous- 
ness, but I "am righteous." Righteous I am "in Christ." 
Not for His sake, because His merits are imparted to me, but 
I, a member of Christ, am, as a member of Him, righteous. 
Being in Him, and in Him righteous before God, I am an 
u heir." As by the law of the land, a son is heir to his father's 
name and estate; so I, a son of God in Christ, have an 
inheritance, and that inheritance "is eternal life." Rom. 
8: 17. 

32 



Q. 60. 



The connection between Answers 59 and 60, embracing 
the entire exposition of the Creed, is very intimate, the 
latter following as a logical consequence of what has pre- 
ceded it. The structure of the Question requires attention. 
The Question is positive. To be righteous is to be in right 
judicial relation to God. The Answer is likewise essentially 
positive. The whole of it is embraced in the first clause. 
To express the whole truth in a single proposition em- 
bracing this Answer in conjunction with the Question, we 
may. put it thus: "I am righteous before God only by true 
faith in Jesus Christ." To express the nature of justifica- 
tion as taught by Paul and formulated by the Reformers, 
we may say : The transgressor, guilty on account of 
transgression, is justified, that is, he comes to stand really 
in right judicial relation to God by faith in Christ. The 
remainder of the Answer is an exposition of the first clause. 
The gist of the exposition may be put thus : God grants 
me the perfect satisfaction of Christ. The succeeding and 
preceding explanatory clauses unfold and express nega- 
tively and positively the character of the sinner's right 
judicial relation to God. 

1. The Central Statement. The person who justifies is 
"God." The person justified is I, the believer, the one who 
exercises the living faith in Jesus Christ. Belonging to 
Christ, God grants me Christ's satisfaction. "Grants" denotes 
the reality of the justification, that is, that I in truth 
partake of and possess through God's grace the satisfaction, 
righteousness and holiness of Christ. "Imputes" is rather 
external and forensic, and refers to the fact that God also 
declares me a sharer in Christ's satisfaction. Both the 
Reformed and Lutheran Reformers laid main stress on the 
first, viz: God really grants Christ's satisfaction. Later 
Calvinism, especially after the Westminister Standards 
were framed (1648), laid chief stress on imputation. The 
blessing granted and imputed is expressed by three words: 

a. Satisfaction. Christ suffered fully the penalty of sin. 
My guilt is expiated by Him. God's wrath in Him is 
appeased. 

b. Righteousness. The merit of His atoning sacrifice is 

33 



Q. 60. 

mine. Here the Catechism, as also a great deal of current 
theology, lays chief stress on the negative side, on the 
merit derived from the sufferings of Christ. 

c. Holiness. This is positive. The entire life of Jesus 
was a life of obedience to the law of God, wherein He per- 
fectly fulfilled God's will; realizing in His history the ideal 
of moral law. A member of Christ by faith, the grant of 
God includes participation in Christ's holiness. 

2. We have two intermediate clauses, expressing the 
condition of this grant of justification. The first is nega- 
tive and relates to me, the believer. God grants "without 
any merit of mine." Says Paul, "Not of works." The 
other is positive and relates to God. Why does God grant? 
Of mere grace. Grace is God's love bestowing gifts on the 
unworthy and guilty. God so loved the world. Moved 
by love to give His Son a propitiation, His love thereby 
becomes grace. For He gives His Son for us who by nature 
are unclean, and His enemies. There is no joining of any 
other condition with grace. "Mere grace" expresses the 
high plane of evangelical truth to which the Reformers 
rose. By the clear recognition of the essence of the gospel 
they broke with all the semi-pelagian errors which had for 
ages afflicted the church. The ground on which God 
justifies me is in Himself, in His grace, realized through His 
incarnate Son, so that my worthiness does not enter in any 
respect into the conditions of acceptance. 

3. Let us now notice the statements which qualify the 
justification of believers. 

" I have grievously sinned against all the commandments 
of God." I who attain to perfect justification, have sinned 
not merely after an ordinary manner, but "grievously." 
Not against my parents and neighbors only, but against 
God. Not one commandment, but all have I broken. That 
does not imply that every justified person has been an out- 
law, thief or murderer, but that the seeds of all transgres- 
sion are in every man. It implies also that the fact of out- 
ward transgression is for God not a hindrance to justifica- 
tion. There are two more qualifying clauses. 

"I have never kept any of them." There is no con- 
tradiction here. A man may at one time observe a law 
and break it at another. It is not necessary to justification 
for me to remember a single instance that I have trans- 
gressed or kept any commandment. 



34 



Q. 60. 



"I am still prone always to all evil." There are in 
every Christian latent possibilities of evil, including the 
transgression of all the commandments. 

Notwithstanding these facts, though my conscience ac- 
cuses me of a character in the past unworthy and defiled, 
a.nd though in my fallen nature there are latent possi- 
bilities of all forms of transgression ; yet to me, accepting 
Christ, God grants Christ's perfect satisfaction. 

4. The following clauses of the Answer show the charac- 
ter of justification. 

Two things meet us in the statement ; one negative, the 
other positive. The negative description is this, "as if I 
had never committed nor had any sin," i. e., I am righteous 
before God. I share the virtue of Christ's atoning sacrifice. 
I in Christ share His righteousness and holiness. I stand 
before God clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, as 
if I had never been a transgressor. This negative clause 
lias in it two things; one is external, the other internal, 
viz : as if I had never committed any sin, and as if I never 
bad had any sin. 

The other clause is positive. "And had myself accom- 
plished .... believing heart." I am righteous not only 
as if all the accusations of conscience were groundless, not 
only as if I were as innocent as Adam before the fall, but 
that I am righteous as if in principle and conduct I had 
Tendered perfect obedience to God. 

5. The final clause expresses the personal condition which 
all along has been presumed and implied. "If only I 
accept." It is not necessary here to dilate on the necessity 
of living faith in Christ. The principle on which the gospel 
proceeds is that, by accepting Christ I become a living 
member of His body, and for this reason a participant in 
the rich benefits of His mediatorship. 

Q. 61. 

Question 61 was occasioned by a false interpretation of 
the office of faith. 

"Why say est thou, that thou art righteous only by 
faith?" 

Some persons replied : because of the intrinsic worthiness 
of faith as faith. That answer resolves faith into a work. 
Then faith would become the ground in man, or the reason 

35 



Q. 61. 



for forgiveness and acceptance. This notion the Cat- 
echism combats. Faith is the instrumental cause as it is 
called, not the causa essendi. 

1. The exercise of the human will under the character 
of belief is in itself, abstractly viewed, without merit. 
Faith presupposes an object. The character of the faith, 
the benefit of the faith, turns on the nature of the object. 

2. The final clause, u by faith only," modifies all that 
precedes it. i. The satisfaction, righteousness and holi- 
ness of Christ is my righteousness by faith only. 2. By 
faith only I can receive the same. 3. By faith only can I 
make Christ my own. 

3. We must guard against the separation or division 
of Christ's work from Christ Himself. The object of my 
faith is not the righteousness which Jesus achieved, nor the 
satisfaction which He by His obedience and by His passion 
rendered to God, but the object is Himself. He becomes mine 
on the divine side by the Holy Ghost; on the human side by 
my own act. That act is twofold : a surrender of myself 
to Him, and the acceptance of Him by me. The union is 
to be affirmed under this twofold aspect. 

4. By faith only do I make all the qualities of Christ as 
Mediator my own. That is, Christ becomes a power in 
my will, in my understanding, in my feeling, in my con- 
duct, by my own act. There is no way by which man, 
a personal being, can, in the true sense, possess what Christ 
is, and avail himself of Christ's benefits than by the appro- 
priation of Christ to himself. 

Remark: 1. Christian faith differs from all other faith 
by its object. The object of faith to the Jew was Jehovah in 
covenant, as set forth by Moses. But to the Christian the 
object is the incarnate Son of God. 

2. Faith in Christ is the final faith in God. God in- 
carnate in the person of His Son, is the ultimate, truest, 
and most complete manifestation of His being. When I 
accept the incarnate Son, I stand on the highest plane of 
fellowship with God, and therefore on the highest plane of 
truth and knowledge. 

Q. 62. 

This Question has a bearing on the objection raised by 
Romanism, and those who were in sympathy with the 

36 



Q. 62. 



Roman doctrine of works. It is assumed by errorists of 
this class, that in the nature of the case my good works 
must be a part of my righteousness before God. The 
Answer of the Catechism is twofold: 1. The only righte- 
ousness that can stand before God must be perfect. 2. My 
best works are defiled with sin. 

1. The main question discussed by the Catechism, and 
at issue in the sixteenth century between the Reformers and 
Romanism, was the ground of acceptance before God. 

For what reason does God forgive sin? Why may I hope 
for salvation? • 

The Romanists said: "Your ground for hope is your per- 
sonal worthiness as really as the mediatorship of Christ ; for 
you need a measure of personal worthiness, through good 
works, in order to become fit to be accepted by the 
Redeemer." The Reformers replied that Christ's mediator- 
ship was the only ground. We have to keep this issue 
before our minds in order to understand the bearing of this 
Question and Answer. 

The Catechism accordingly does not ask whether good 
works are good; nor whether personal righteousness and 
Christian morality are acceptable before God. 

2. The righteousness that can stand before God is de- 
scribed under a twofold aspect. It must be perfect. That 
relates to its personal or subjective character. I, the per- 
sonal subject, must perform a righteousness in which there 
is no defect whatever. 

The other clause describes the object, the criterion, the 
standard by which I judge what is and what is not right, 
namely, the divine law. My righteousness to be perfect 
must therefore at all points be conformable, not to my 
judgment, not to human laws, but conformable to God's 
law. 

3. The Catechism simply declares what is evident to 
every man rightly instructed in divine things. In this life 
our very best works are imperfect ; L <?., they do not answer 
to the divine law, and are vitiated by our sinfulness. 

Q. 63. 

Another difficulty or objection to the doctrine of the 
Catechism arises from the fact that God rewards our good 

37 



Q. 63. 



works. "How is it that our good works merit nothing?'' 
There seems to be a contradiction. If good works merit 
nothing, then there is no reward due good works; con- 
versely, if good works be rewarded then they merit some- 
thing. This Answer to us, using the words in the sense 
they commonly bear, is obscure ; for reward implies merit. 
We cannot assume that divine grace will reward evil 
works. 

1. The difficult}' is removed by recognizing the distinc- 
tion which has before been made. Good works merit 
nothing; i. e., they possess no merit whatever, as the con- 
dition of forgiveness and acceptance. The only condition 
of acceptance is union with Christ by faith. The cause or 
oround of forgiveness is the mediation of the Mediator. 
Reward comes not of merit, i. e., it does not come because 
works done by me, in my own strength, by the power of 
my own will, are a satisfaction before God on account of 
which I receive pardon. But I, through faith in Christ, 
have forgiveness by grace. God's love to me a sinner, 
God laying hold of me by the Holy Ghost, and regenerat- 
ing me in the fellowship of Christ, renders possible the 
doing of good works. The reward which follows is the 
consequence of this communion of grace, into which by 
the Spirit I am come, and which by faith I appropriate. 

O. 64. 

This Question takes up another objection to the Catechism 
and doctrine of the Reformation. The Question implies 
that men will do good for profit, for personal gain, temporal 
or spiritual, but if there be no personal gain, temporal or 
eternal, they will be indifferent to the good. They will 
abandon themselves to the impulses of sin. 

The Answer of the Catechism is the unconditional, "No>.'- 
It is given in a double negative form. The image which 
underlies the form of the Answer is the living image of 
the New Testament. The relation of a believer to Christ 
is like the relation of the branch to the tree. 

1. The man who has true faith in Christ is one who is 
implanted into Him. Xot that Christ is implanted into the 

38 



Q. 64. 



believer, but conversely; Christ is the new stock of life into 
which by the Holy Ghost men are engrafted. Engrafted 
by the Spirit, the virtue of this life-relation to Christ be- 
comes their own personally by receiving it ; and the act of 
faith is the act of receiving. Implanted into Christ, the law 
of life in Christ becomes the law of life in the believer. 
Just as a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, so Jesus 
Christ, the tree of righteousness, cannot in its living 
branches bring forth evil works. 

2. The Catechism expresses this truth unconditionally 
and with great force. A thankful life expresses itself in 
righteousness and holiness, and it cannot do otherwise. 

If righteousness do not appear in the personal life of the 
believer, the life of Christ by the Spirit either is wholly 
wanting in Him or it is latent. 

3. Observation and experience confirm this general 
truth. As Paul expresses it: "How shall we, that are dead 
to sin, live any longer therein?" 

The history of the Church proclaims unequivocally that 
believers who put their whole trust in Christ and serve Him 
from love, are the ones who in practical life are thoroughly 
averse to all manner of moral evil. 

Remark: Faith works by love. True faith in Christ is 
accordingly not passive, not a slumbering potency like the 
germ-life in a seed, but a vital principle which will assert 
itself with different degrees of force in the will and con- 
duct. So far from giving occasion for fear that the doc- 
trine of justification by faith may lead to immorality, it is 
just that which has, above all other theories, been most 
productive in believers of righteousness and godliness. 

Of the Holv Sacraments. 

Q. 65. 

This Question sums up in well-chosen words the results 
of previous teaching. Observe the distinction between 
Christ and Christ's benefits. Cf. Question 20. Observe 
also the order : First, Christ ; second, His benefits. Again, 
notice the emphasis put on the vital relation to Christ. 
Cf. Question 32. Believers are Christ's members. They 
share all His benefits. The certainty of this truth in rela- 
tion to us turns on faith. Now comes the important ques- 

39 



Q. 65- 



tion: Whence comes this faith? Whence is the faith on 
which hinges my membership in Christ and my appropri- 
ation of His benefits? 

1. The subject of the Answer is the "Holy Ghost." Oi 
the Holy Ghost it is affirmed that He works faith "in our 
hearts." He works in the core of our personal existence, 
where understanding, will, emotion, meet and are one. 

How does the Holy Ghost work this faith in my heart? 
"By the preaching of the holy gospel," the divinely ap- 
pointed medium in which and through which the Holy 
Ghost works. Not that the Spirit works in no other way 
or in no other institution; but the one medium which above 
all others is cardinal in Christianity is the preaching and 
teaching of the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, and 
hearing by the word of God. 

2. What else does the Catechism predicate of the Holy 
Ghost? He confirms my faith "by the use of the Holy 
Sacraments." He makes the faith that I have in Christ 
stronger. He nourishes it, invigorates its vitality. How 
is this done? By the use of the Holy Sacraments. The 
word "use" is a Reformation word, and touches the point 
of difference between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, 
on the one side, and Romanism on the other. Rome 
predicates virtue of the Sacraments. Protestantism pred- 
icates benefits — personal benefits — to the believer from the 
use of them. 

The virtue which Sacraments signify and seal comes to 
men through actual participation. 

Q. 66. 

According to the Catechism, our faith in Christ is con- 
firmed by the use of the Sacraments. 

i. The Sacraments are "signs and seals." What do they 
signify? " The promise of the gospel." What is the 
promise? That God grants me, "out of free grace, the 
forgiveness of sins and everlasting life." This is the evan- 
gelical truth which the breaking of bread and the pouring 
of wine, or the cup, sets forth ; as a seal the Sacraments 
assure us, or communicate really to us, that w T hich they 
signify. 

40 



O. 66. 



The Catechism uses the noun "seals" and the verb 
"seal." It says, " the Sacraments are seals" and through 
their use "seal" to us the promise of the gospel. 

2. Signs and seals are "visible" and " holy." Visible be- 
cause objects of the bodily eye ; holy because set apart in 
this ordinance from a common to a spiritual and sacred end. 
Observe, however, that the Catechism does not teach merely 
that visible, holy signs and seals are Sacraments. The signs 
and seals by themselves, simply as objects of the sense and 
of faith, are not Sacraments. 

3. The signs and seals are appointed of God for a two- 
fold end. 

a. That God may more fully declare the promise of the 
gospel. The sacramental transaction sets forth before the 
eye and the heart, in outward form, the great central 
spiritual truth — that in Christ believers have forgiveness of 
sins and life eternal. 

b. That God, through the Sacraments, may more fully 
seal to us this promise. The virtue of Christ's cross and 
the resurrection passes to the believer through the Sacra- 
ments in a degree other than that grace which comes to them 
by the word. The Catechism says, "more fully seal." It 
does not explicitly here teach a difference of virtue from 
Christ as to kind. 

How is this done? How is it that these signs and seals 
more fully declare and seal the promise? The Answer is 
"by the use thereof." Emphasis was put on this principle 
in the Tetrapolitan Confession of 1530, in the Augsburg 
Confession, and particularly in the apology of the Augs- 
burg Confession by Melanchthon. This principle, that the 
Sacraments avail only by the tise of them, was common to 
and distinctive of all Reformed churches of the Reformation. 

Rome calls the consecrated bread and wine on the 
altar the Sacraments, and celebrates them for the benefit 
of persons who are dead. The principle that the virtue of 
the Sacraments for believers turns on the use of them by 
communicants had no place in mediaeval theology; and 
because this principle was ignored, a large part of the 
abuses and corruptions in the Roman Church gained a foot- 
hold, especially the traffic in the Mass for the relief of the 
dead in purgatory. 

4. Reformed theologians used the word "promise" to 
express the substance of the gospel. They did not mean 

4i 



Q. 66. 

a benefit lying in the future that believers would in course 
of time obtain ; but they desired to affirm the certainty of 
Grace, a certainty depending on God's word. 

5. The latter half of the Answer sets forth the substance 
of the Promise. By the Sacraments the promise is declared 
and sealed. What does the promise embrace ? Two things 
as here expressed : forgiveness out of free grace, and ever- 
lasting life, both on the ground of the Sacrifice of Christ. 

Q- 67- 

The Question and Answer may be considered together 
to set forth the import of the truth here designed to be 
taught. Their significance turns on the implied antithesis 
of the Evangelical doctrine to Romanism. The answer ta 
the question is: "Yes, truly." What follows in the Answer 
affirms in equivalent words the import of the Question. 
Rome denies that forgiveness of sin and everlasting life are 
obtained on the sole ground of the sacrifice of Christ ; not 
that His sacrifice in itself is insufficient for the purpose 
for which it is designed, but that the virtue of that one 
sacrifice avails for believers through the mass. That sacri- 
fice is repeated by the offering on the altar of the body 
and blood of Christ by the priest. 

The bread and wine of the Sacrament are transubstanti- 
ated into the very body and blood of Christ, including His 
true Godhead. The host, therefore, and the cup, are the 
renewed sacrifice which avails for those in whose behalf 
the offering is made. It avails both for the living, and for 
the dead in purgatory. 

It was this notion of the unbloody sacrifice on the altar 
and the traffic in souls connected with the unbloody sacri- 
fice, which the Reformation resisted and denounced. 
Hence the emphasis which our Catechism puts on the 
formula, "Christ on the cross." The expression that both 
Word and Sacraments are designed to direct faith to Christ 
on the cross, does not affirm the sacrifice by way of opposition 
to the conception or nativity of Jesus, or to His resurrection 
and glorification, but affirms this one sacrifice over against 
42 



Q. 67. 



the unbloody sacrifice of the Church of Rome. When the 
Catechism says that Christ's sacrifice is the only ground, it 
means that this sacrifice need not be supplemented by any 
other sacrifice, by no service of the priest at the altar. 

If the inference, .as has sometimes been the case, be 
drawn from this teaching, that the Catechism lays no stress 
on the Nativity or on the Resurrection, it contradicts both 
the explicit teaching of the Catechism and the historical 
circumstances under which it was formed. 

Q. 68. 

In Question 66 it is said that the Sacraments are "ap- 
pointed of God." Here the appointment is referred to 
Christ. There is no contradiction. The Sacraments are 
appointed of God in Christ, the Mediator. The number is 
two, in opposition to the number seven held by the Roman 
Church, adding Marriage, Confirmation, Penance, Ordina- 
tion and Extreme Unction. The Roman Church concedes 
a difference ; Baptism and the Lord's Supper are primordial 
yet the remaining five are really not only ordinances or 
rites but Sacraments. The Greek Church is in accord with 
the Roman Church. 

Marriage, repentance, confirmation, ordination are solemn 
rites which have been in use by the Church from the earliest 
ages ; only in process of time were these raised to the dignity 
of Sacraments. The Reformed Church acknowledged 
these five as ordinances, not indeed extreme unction, but 
the solemnity of burial. Marriage, confirmation, ordina- 
tion and burial are solemn Church rites having sacramental 
significance ; holding that there is a divine blessing attend- 
ing the scriptural performance of these ordinances. 

The Reformed and Lutheran Churches in this particular 
differ somewhat. Luther retained not auriclar confession 
in the Roman sense, but confession connected with absolu- 
tion as a sacrament of subordinate force. Confession 
occupies this place now in one branch of the Lutheran 
Church. The sacrament in the Reformed sense is based 

43 



Q. 68. 



on the idea announced by Augustine : accedit elementum 
verbum et sacramentum fit. The word comes to the ele- 
ments and the sacrament is constituted. This is the gen- 
eral import of the doctrine of the sacrament which 
underlies Reformed teaching, especially the Heidelberg 
Catechism. 

Q. 69. 

A more literal wording of the original would be this : 
How art thou in Holy Baptism reminded and assured that 
the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross avails for thy bene- 
fit? 

There is no word in the original answering to the 
Knglish "signified and sealed;" and while the grammatical 
subject of the latter half of the Question is the sacrifice of 
Christ, in this version the grammatical subject is the cate- 
chumen, "thou." The Answer we have in the first clause: 
"Christ has appointed this outward washing with water 
and has joined therewith this promise." 

1. What has Christ appointed? Outward washing with 
water, i. <?., the free application of water to the body of the 
candidate. Water, by the judgment of the Church uni- 
versal, is, as such, consecrated to this sacramental use. 
Water is not by prayer or by the Word to be set apart. It 
is assumed that by the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, 
water as water is set apart for this purpose. But the water 
to be used ought to be living water, water from a fountain 
or a running stream, not dead water from a pool or a 
stagnant collection. Little depends on the quantity ; but 
the reality of the administration requires the use of water 
freely, not a drop only as occurs in sprinkling. 

The outward washing is not by itself the Sacrament. 
That by which outward washing becomes a Sacrament is 
the conjunction therewith of the truth of the promise. 
When these two, the "washing" and the "promise," are 
really united in the administration agreeably to the Word 
of God, then you have Baptism, otherwise not. 

2. The remainder of the Answer expounds the import or 
truth of the promise. In few words it is: "I am washed 

44 



O. 69. 



with His blood and Spirit from the pollution of my soul." 
The formula, u blood and Spirit," is peculiar to the Cate- 
chism, and is used throughout to denote the interior virtue 
of the Sacrament. 

3. The main point in this Answer is that the inward 
virtue, viz : washing with His blood and Spirit is as cer- 
tain as the outward washing of water. The outward 
certifies the inward. If the inward be not real, be not a 
present force, the outward is not, according to the Catechism, 
a constituent of the Sacrament of Baptism. 

Q. 70. 

This Question asks for the meaning of the formula 
given, in the preceding Answer, viz: "His blood and 
Spirit," which expresses the spiritual virtue, the interior 
force of the Sacrament. To be washed with the blood and 
Spirit of Christ is "to have the forgiveness of sin from 
God," and also "to be renewed by the Holy Ghost." 
The Answer is given in two parts. The first pertains to 
the washing with His blood, and the second to the washing 
with the Spirit of Christ. 

1. The blood of Christ denotes the offering of Himself 
on the cross by the shedding of the heart's blood in the 
laying down of His life. Jesus laid down His life under 
the condemnation of the law. "He hath made Him to be 
sin for us," 2 Cor. 5:21. The virtue of this one atoning 
sacrifice is made over to us by the Sacrament of Baptism. 
This is God's act. By it, through the Spirit, the atonement 
avails for us, hence called the forgiveness of sins. The 
subject of Baptism is by the Sacrament admitted into the 
covenant of grace, and occupies the right relation to God 
through Christ. 

2. Forgiveness in baptism is not personal justification. 
The forgiveness is objective; i. e., the subject is adopted 
into the family of God; thus adopted, he stands in the 
economy of grace. It now turns on himself whether or not 
he by his own act will accept the Christ who has adopted 
him. 

3. To be washed by the Spirit means to be by the Holy 
Ghost renewed and sanctified to be members of Christ. 
The subject is created anew, i. e., he is put into the life- 

45 



Q. 70. 



communion of love with God in Christ. To the renewal 
of baptism we also can apply the term objective. He is 
born into a new kingdom. 

4. A person adopted into the kingdom by Baptism is, 
by virtue of that grace, an heir of God, a joint heir with 
Christ. If through the perverseness of sin he fail of real- 
izing in his history the end of such great grace, that does 
not turn the inheritance into untruth or folly. 

5. Adopted into the kingdom, the subject is sanctified, 
i. e., by the Holy Ghost he is on the one hand separated 
from the world of sin and on the other set apart, conse- 
crated to the service of the kingdom. He is set apart to 
the position, office and work of a member of Christ. 

6. The last clauses express the moral and spiritual end 
of the Sacrament. The purpose is twofold, one negative 
and the other positive. The language adopted from 
Romans 6, is very strong: "We may more and more die 
into sin." Baptism in principle sunders my connection 
with the fallen world. Therefore I am to be in relation 
to sin as though I were not, i. e., as if dead. 

The other purpose is positive that we may "lead holy and 
unblamable lives." By Baptism I am set apart to be a 
member of Christ to the end that I may lead a holy life, 
a life in will, in purpose, in thought, in all my outward 
conduct, consecrated, wholly consecrated, to Jesus Christ. 

Q-7i- 

This Question asks for the evidence and proof of the expo- 
sition given in the previous Answer. Where has Christ 
taught this? "In the institution of Baptism." Mark 16:16. 
If we take the words in the sense in which they were spoken, 
in which they were understood by the Apostles, in the sense 
in which Baptism is everywhere in the New Testament set 
forth, they are the adequate evidence. Baptism is the 
divine transaction by which the subject is joined to the 
triune Name. God and God's name are, in one respect 
identical. If we distinguish the two things, the term 
"God" denotes the divine being in Himself, not re- 
vealed, whilst "Name" denotes the divine being led forth 
into the field of vision, confronting us as manifested in 
His kingdom, founded in the trinity. Rom. 5:4, 5. The 

46 



Q. 7i- 



Catechism quotes two other passages, Titus 3:5, and 
Acts 22:16. To these may be added 1 Peter 3: 21. The 
figure of Peter is taken from the deluge ; as by water Noah 
in the ark was saved, so Baptism now saves us by the resur- 
rection of Christ. 

Q. 72. 

The Catechism distinguishes definitely between water 
and baptism, between washing with water and the ob- 
servance of baptism. Hence this Question. The Answer is 
an unconditional negative, " No." The outward washing 
with water by itself is not Baptism. Only the blood of 
Christ and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sin. 

1. Two things must be considered. First, that the blood 
and Spirit of Christ alone take away sin. But by this formula, 
"blood and Spirit," the Catechism means the internal 
spiritual virtue of Baptism, not Christ disjoined from 
His ordinance. Second, what God has joined together can- 
not be put asunder. Washing with water does not regen- 
erate and save us. On the other hand, we do not become 
members of Christ in the New Testament sense by virtue 
of His death and the agency of the Holy Spirit divorced 
from the Sacrament. Here then two things are to be 
affirmed, viz : the divine and the human factor. Faith is an 
indispensable requisite. Baptism without it cannot issue in 
salvation. So Baptism is an indispensable requisite, i. e. 
the blood and Spirit of Christ work effectually (in the ob- 
jective sense) in and through holy Baptism. That is the 
divinely established order. 

Remarks: 1. Do not in experience judge of the virtue 
of Baptism from the abuse of it. Perhaps the majority of 
baptized infants abuse baptismal grace, as Esau disposed of 
his birthright. Of Baptism we must judge by the word of 
God. That is first. Then judge of it from experience in 
cases where- the response of men to the obligation of Bap- 
ism corresponds to God's will. 

We have to deal here with some extraordinary cases. 
Does it follow that a man who repents and believes in 
Christ, but is called hence before he can be baptized, will 
perish? The Catechism does not teach such a doctrine. 

47 



Q- 12. 



It is the neglect and refusal that condemns, not the una- 
voidable omission. 

Again, are unbaptized infants or adults necessarily lost? 
Augustine taught so, and the Roman Church still teaches 
that doctrine ; though it holds of unbaptized infants only 
that they suffer by the privation of the higher good. The 
Reformed Church does not teach, nor does it follow from 
the lack of Baptism in the case of infants, that they are 
excluded from the kingdom of God. 

2. This reasoning applies to the Word as it does to the 
Sacraments. God's Word is the power and wisdom of God 
to salvation. It is the appointed and indispensible means 
whereby truth and grace come to men. Faith comes by 
hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But it does not 
follow logically that all who have not heard and do not 
hear the Word will, as a necessary consequence, be ex- 
cluded. 

3. Those only are excluded from the kingdom of heaven 
who do not become members of Christ. In order to be 
a member of Christ two things are requisite ; the agency 
of the Holy Spirit, the divine work, and the power of 
living faith, the human act. For no man can regenerate 
himself and become personally possessor of the new life 
and of forgiveness apart from the responsive act of his own 
will. 

Q. 73. 

This Question takes up Titus 3 : 5, where baptism is 
spoken of as the "bath of regeneration," and Acts 22 : 16, 
where it is called "the washing away of sins." If outward 
washing does not regenerate nor take away sins, why does 
the Holy Spirit predicate regeneration and purification of 
baptism? In Question 72 it is the outward washing of 
which spiritual virtue is denied, t. e., the external divorced 
from the internal transaction. In 73 it is Baptism of 
which spiritual virtue is affirmed. Outward washing with 
water does not wash away sins. The removal of sins turns 
on the blood and spirit of Christ. 

Why then does the Holy Ghost, as in Titus 3:5, call 
baptism the bath of regeneration? Answer 73 seeks to 

. 48 



Q- 73. 



solve this seeming lack of consistency between Scripture 
and Answer 72. 

The Answer consists of two parts. The first reasserts 
the latter half of Answer 69, more fully explained by 70. 
The second part endeavors to add to the force of this truth. 
The first part is introduced by the formula, "not only." 
This implies an affirmation and a negation. The affirma- 
tion is that the antecedent in this Answer is true; the 
negation implies that this truth is not the whole truth. 
The formula with which the second part is introduced, 
viz: "but much more," implies a negation and an affirma- 
tion. The negation is that the truth of the antecedent is 
not the whole truth ; the positive is that the climax of the 
statement of truth is given in the consequent. 

1. The antecedent in substance repeats the latter half 
of Answer 69. It reasserts the symbolical significance of 
Baptism ; it reasserts the analogy between outward bodily 
washing and inward spiritual cleaning. The outward is 
by water, the inward by the blood and Spirit of Christ. 
The antecedent is equivalent to the explanations of the 
title sign, as given in 66. As a sign the Sacraments more 
fully than the word of the gospel declare to us the promise. 
The gospel teaches the promise in words. Baptism 
teaches the Promise in an actual transaction in which the 
individual subject is a participant. 

2. The consequent is intended to be the climax of state- 
ment as to the inward virtue of Baptism. The force of 
this final statement turns on the expression, "that by this 
divine pledge and token He may assure us, that we are as 
really washed from our sins spiritually, as our bodies are 
washed with water." The Catechism abides by the idea 
that the seal certifies, makes forgiveness sure, so that the 
subject of Baptism may without doubt know that from his 
sins he is really washed spiritually; the inward washing be- 
ing as certain for him as the outward. The subjective ele- 
ment prevails in this climax. The spiritual good accom- 
fla7iiesthe outward transaction ; the outward is the pledge, 
the token, that the inward is present. 

It follows from this teaching, if no more, that the subject 
of Baptism is by the blood and Spirit of Christ adopted 
into the covenant, and thus freed from the condemnation 
resting upon him in consequence of sin. Positively con- 

49 



Q. 73- 



sidered, baptism sets, its subjects apart or sanctifies them to 
be members of Christ, as its inward force is expressed in 
Answer 70. 

Infant Baptism. 
Q. 74- 

The Answer says unconditionally, yes. There are two 
things chiefly taught by the Answer. The first is the 
ground on which the affirmation that infants are to be 
baptized rests. The other is the virtue of infant baptism, 
or the spiritual good which, through baptism, comes to the 
infant. There is a supplementary thought connecting in- 
fant baptism with infant circumcision. 

1. The ground on which infant baptism rests is twofold. 
First, the infant children of Christian parents belong to 
the covenant of God and are His possession. Second, 
that the blessing of grace, viz : redemption from sin and 
the Holy Ghost, are promised to infants as certainly as to 
their parents. 

2. As to its genius, the covenant of God with man is but 
one ; the import of the Abrahamic covenant runs through 
the entire history of its development. That covenant em- 
braced the children of Abraham, also the children of every 
family descending from Abraham ; hence the sign of cir- 
cumcision for adults and infants. Infants eight days' old 
were to be circumcised. God in the economy of grace does 
not deal with individuals as individuals only. He deals 
with the family. The unit of the race is not Adam, but 
Adam and Eve constituting one flesh. 

The covenant in principle is the same, both under the old 
and new dispensation. The difference between the old and 
new covenant is not one that narrows but enlarges it. 
Under the old, male infants were to be circumcised, and 
male members of the family had rights and privileges 
from which women were excluded. Under the new, female 
infants as well as male infants become members of the 
kingdom by the same ordinance. Women and men are 
admitted alike to the holy communion. A construction 
of the covenant that excludes infants from it, on the 
ground that they do not believe, contradicts the genius 
of the covenant even as it stood under the old dispensation. 

3. The other ground is that redemption and the Holy 

50 



Q. 74- 



Chost are by the Word of God secured to little children 
no less than their parents. Infants are conceived and born 
in sin. Ps. 51. Without redemption from sin they can- 
not be saved ; without regeneration by the Holy Ghost 
they cannot have the new life. God does not draw the 
line on the score of age between man and man. The 
kingdom of God designs its spiritual blessings for all who 
need them. Therefore, on the ground of the one atoning 
sacrifice of Christ on the cross, made for the whole human 
race, these fundamental blessings, viz : the quickening of 
the new life by the Holy Ghost and deliverance from the 
consequences of the fall, are promised to children, as well 
as to parents. 

4. Hence this follows : By baptism infants are to be "en- 
grafted into the Christian Church." Baptism, like circum- 
cision, is regarded as the sign of the covenant. But chief 
stress is laid on its inner virtue. The Catechism (following 
the example of Paul) uses fhe image of engrafting. Infants, 
like a twig taken from the wild olive tree, is inserted into 
the new stock, Jesus Christ, the Vine, in whom all living 
branches grow and bear fruit. 

5. Baptism draws the line of difference between the 
child of believers and the child of unbelievers. We may 
call the line outward if we fix attention on the outward- 
ness of the baptismal transaction. Really, however, the 
line of difference is inward and spiritual. 

6. The Catechism concludes the Answer by drawing the 
parallel between circumcision and baptism, maintaining 
that baptism in the kingdom of God founded by Christ, 
takes the place of circumcision. 

Remark: The faith of the parent is necessary to the 
baptism of an infant. Either that or the faith of some 
other suitable person who will stand as sponsor, assuming 
the spiritual responsibility which Baptism imposes. For 
infant baptism by its very nature anticipates careful 
spiritual education and culture. 

Of the Holy Supper of the Lord. 
Q. 75. 

The structure of the Question is ruled by the doctrine 
of the Sacraments. The Supper is a sign and a seal. The 
thing signified and sealed is that I partake of the one 
sacrifice of Christ on the cross. How is this truth, this 

5i 



Q. 75- 



reality, signified and sealed? The Answer is given in three 
main parts. The first is introductory and rests on the gen- 
eral conception of the Sacraments. The second affirms 
the commemorative force of the Supper, its force touching 
the atoning sacrifice for me. The third enforces the com- 
munion between Christ and the communicant. Christ 
by his body and blood nourishes my soul. 

1. Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat of the 
broken bread and drink of the cup "and has joined there 
with these promises." The external and internal are con- 
joined on the basis of the principle announced first by 
Augustine : " Ad elementum verbum accedit et sacramentum 
fit" The word comes to the elements and the sacrament 
is constituted. 

The Catechism says, "this broken bread and this cup." 
By these forms of expression it designates the sacred 
bread and the sacred cup ; in other words, the bread and 
wine set apart for the Lord's Supper. Distinguished 
thus, this cup, this bread, from all bread and wine em- 
ployed for common use, it is the conjunction by the Spirit 
of the truth of the word, the truth expressed and com- 
municated by the word, with bread and wine, that makes 
the institution called the Lord's Supper. 

2. It follows then that consecrated bread and wine are 
not the Lord's Supper, not bread and wine disjoined from 
the body and blood of Christ. Also that the elements on 
the altar before and after the communion are not the Sup- 
per. The Supper is a transaction which includes the cele- 
brator and the communicant. Hence follows the em- 
phasis which the Reformers lay on the use. 

3. The Sacrament is commemorative; not that we com- 
memorate, though there is truth in the expression, "we 
do this in remembrance." But the truth here taught is that 
His body was offered and His blood shed for me as cer- 
tainly as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken 
me. 

4. The assurance that Christ offered Himself for me is 
given by this transaction. The Catechism emphasizes the 
breaking of the bread; not that I break it, but it is broken 
for me. • Not that I take the cup, but that the cup is given to 
me. It is the objective side of the transaction which is 
especially emphasized. Words can only in general terms 
teach that Christ died for sinners ; only in general terms 

52 



Q. 75- 



can it assure us that His death is undoubted and real. 
Words of Scripture do not indicate the person to whom 
the truth of the word applies. Words cannot say to John 
or Peter, "Christ died for thee." Of course, in this illus- 
tration, John and Peter stand for all individual believers. 
But in the sacramental transaction Christ by His ministry 
certifies to every individual who takes the bread and wine, 
that for him, as John or James or Mary, the atoning sacri- 
fice was made. In this sense the Lord's Supper is com- 
memorative, not outwardly only, but by a transaction 
which has inward force. 

The chief signification of the Lord's Supper is affirmed in 
the last part of this Answer. Christ Himself feeds and nour- 
ishes. Observe the careful and emphatic construction ; not 
only " He," but " He Himself." The nourishment is not a 
divine influence. The nourishment is in and by the 
human nature of Christ. By "crucified body" and "shed 
blood" is designated the Mediator on the cross. But the 
meaning cannot be limited to the cross. The humanity 
whereby I am nourished is the crucified Christ ascended 
and glorified. It is the perfected humanity in and by 
which only vital fellowship with God is begun, continued 
and perfected. 

5. Such nourishment of the soul by the crucified God- 
man in heaven is as certain as I taste with my mouth the 
oread and cup of the Lord. The eating and drinking by 
me, which means, on the reverse side, the communication to 
me of the consecrated bread and cup, is the certain token of 
my nourishment by the body and blood of Christ. The 
spiritual nourishment is as certain as the natural nourish- 
ment. 

q. 76. 

The Answer is given in two parts, corresponding to the 
twofold idea of the Supper. 

The one is that I in the Supper share the virtue of the 
atoning sacrifice ; in eating the Supper I embrace the death 
of Christ ; by embracing His death I obtain forgiveness of 
sins and life eternal. 

The other general truth is communion with Christ. The 
Catechism aims to expound the meaning of the words in 
Question 75 : "With His crucified body and shed blood He 
Himself feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life." 

53 



Q. 76. 

The gist of this second part of the Answer may be ex- 
pressed in these selected words: "to be so united to His 
sacred body that we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His 
bones." The teaching here presumes what the Catechism 
in different places has set forth, e. g., in 32, "that I am a 
member of Christ." 

1. This Answer uses the formula of 73, "not only," "but 
also." With a believing heart I embrace the death of 
Christ as real in the observance of the Lord's Supper. In 
the act of eating the Lord's Supper in faith I embrace the 
sacrifice on the cross, and appropriate its redeeming virtue 
to myself, thereby obtaining forgiveness and life. I have a 
renewed certification of the truth that in Christ I am free 
from condemnation. In the act of eating the Supper the 
new life in Christ is nourished and grows. This twofold 
virtue is objective. Grace is active towards me and in me 
by the force of the Sacrament itself. I am to be receptive. 
I am active in faith in that I appropriate Christ as forgive- 
ness and life eternal. 

2. The Catechism reaches the climax of its exposition 
in the second part, the aim being to set forth the marrow of 
the truth of Answer 75 expressed by the words: "with His 
crucified body and shed blood He Himself feeds and nour- 
ishes my soul to everlasting life." We may gather up the 
meaning of the Catechism into words already given, viz : 
"by eating the Supper we are more and more united to the 
sacred body of Christ." Adopting the words of Paul in 
Ephesians 4, the Catechism denotes this closer union by 
saying, "that we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His 
bones." This language is designed to intensify and make 
real the force of the words, "sacred body." In each ob- 
servance of the Supper we are as it were knit to the Son 
of Man. The union between Him and us, His members,, 
is as close as the union of bone to bones, and of flesh to flesh 
in the natural body. 

3. This union and nourishment depends on the Holy 
Spirit. The Spirit, the pentecostal Gift, dwells in Christ, 
in the incarnate Son glorified. The Spirit also dwells in 
us His living members. The oneness between Christ, the 
Head, and us, His members, is begotten by His Holy Spirit ; 
and by the Spirit in the Supper the life union is main- 
tained and nourished. The crucified God-man glorified is 

54 



Q. 76. 



the food which by the Holy Spirit is imparted to believing 
communicants. 

4. This union and communion is not affected by the fact 
that we are on earth and Christ in heaven. Heaven means 
the glorified order of the spiritual world. Earth here means 
the Church militant, subject to the conditions of this world. 
The union of God and man in the person of Christ, is the 
union of the two worlds. He, by His resurrection and 
glorification, has superseded and transcended the opposition 
and contradiction otherwise prevalent between God and 
man, between the heavenly and the earthly. 

5. The Answer concludes by the use of a simile. Christ 
and His people, viewed as one body, is compared with man 
as an individual. My soul animates and inhabits all the 
members of my body simultaneously ; so the Holy Spirit, 
being in Christ and in us, governs all the members of 
Christ's kingdom. The fellowship of Christ, by the Spirit, 
active toward us and in us, is as real, as intimate, as vital, 
also as inscrutable, as the union of the soul and the 
natural body. 

Q. 77- 

The Question does not inquire after the authority for 
teaching the symbolical import of the Supper, but for the 
authority on which rests the mystical truth that Christ 
feeds and nourishes believers with His body and blood. 
The Answer quotes 1 Cor. 12:23-26. The Reformed 
Church uses the form of words given by Paul. If I mis- 
take not, this rule prevails in all Reformed and Presbyter- 
ian churches. The Lutheran Church bases its formula on 
the gospels. Its formula follows the words of the institu- 
tion as given by Luke, but not exclusively. 

1. Observe that in the formula "take, eat," both verbs 
are in the imperative mood. Their force might be ex- 
pressed thus, "take ye, eat ye." 

2. Biblical criticism has settled that the word "broken," 
1 Cor. 11 : 24, is not genuine. The words are, "take, eat, 
this is my body, which is for you." This is far-reaching. 
Much of the controversy in the sixteenth century turned 
on the word "broken." 

3. The words of Paul emphasize the commemoration, 
but also the communion. The commemoration appears in 

55 



Q- 77- 



these words, "this do in remembrance of me." The com- 
munion is the fact that we eat the bread and drink of the 
cup, the two things being inseparately conjoined. The 
words of the institution are supported by i Cor. 10: 16, 17, 
where communion is especially emphasized. 

Q. 78. 

This Question regards the wide difference between the 
evangelical truth of the Lord's Supper, and the Roman 
theory, which teaches transubstantiation. The Answer is 
the categorical " No" In one view this denial is the 
whole of the Answer. It means that the bread by conse- 
cration is not as to its substance changed into the body of 
Christ. In this respect there is no difference between the 
two main branches of the Protestant Church. Both classes 
of the Reformers stood with equal emphasis opposed to 
the Roman theory. 

1. The Answer institutes a comparison between the 
Lord's Supper and Baptism. In Baptism the natural 
element as natural, undergoes no change. In the sacra- 
mental transaction water obtains a sacred relation to the 
cleansing virtue of Christ, but the water is not changed into 
the blood ; hence it follows also that external washing with 
water is not itself the spiritual cleansing of the soul. But 
the water and the washing with the water constitute, ac- 
cording to the Catechism, a twofold force, a token and an 
assurance. The external indicates and at the same time is 
the certification of the internal, spiritual virtue. 

2. So in the Lord's Supper the bread and wine are 
" sacred," because set apart and by the Holy Spirit con- 
nected with Christ ; but natural bread continues to be nat- 
ural bread, and wine to be natural wine. 

3. The purpose of this Answer is merely to affirm these 
truths by way of antithesis to the Roman doctrine of tran- 
substantiation. 

4. Agreeably to the nature and usage of Sacraments 
"the sacred bread" is called the body of Christ. What is 
the nature of the Sacrament? By the institution two 
things, one natural the other supernatural, one visible and 
earthly the other invisible and heavenly, are conjoined and 
become one. Hence of the unity we may predicate either 
of the constituents. Of the Sacrament we mav predicate 

56 



Q. 78. 



the body of Christ ; of the Sacrament we may predicate 
natural bread. What is meant by " usage?" It may be 
expressed by the phrase, u usus loquendi" It is the mode 
of speech belonging to Sacraments. According to ap- 
proved scriptural and theological speech, we predicate of 
the one spiritual unity either bread or the body. 

Remark : The Reformed and Lutherans of the sixteenth 
century are on these points of one mind. The difference 
between the Reformed Confessions and the Book of Con- 
cord relates chiefly to the manner of the presence. The 
Reformed maintain a real presence, but by the agency of 
the Holy Spirit. The Lutheran Church denies the term 
""consubstantiation;" it also denies local presence. The ap- 
proved formula is "m, cum et sub" i. e., the real body of 
Christ is present, in, with and under the consecrated bread. 

Q. 79- 

Question 79 corresponds to Question 73 ; and the two 
Answers are constructed on the same general principle. 
The opening sentence of Answer 73 differs from that of 79 
only in saying "God speaks" instead of "Christ speaks." 
The body of the Answer consists of two parts, the antecedent 
and the consequent, the two being connected by the formula, 
"Not only .... but much more." "Not only" is, first, 
affirmative, then negative, it means that the antecedent 
teaches the truth, but not the whole truth. The second 
member of the formula, "but much more," means that the 
antecedent does not contain the whole truth, but that the 
complemental truth is taught by the consequent. 

1. Sacramental eating is compared to natural eating. 
Natural bread nourishes temporal life ; so does spiritual food 
nourish the soul unto life eternal. The spiritual food is 
Christ's crucified body and shed blood. Cf. the latter half 
of Answer 75. Christ's glorified humanity is the true meat 
and drink unto immortality. This is part of the truth 
taught by Christ in the Lord's Supper, but only a part. 

2. According to the Catechism, the whole truth is much 
more. Much more than what? Than the spiritual fact 
that by the crucified body and shed blood of Christ our souls 
are nourished unto eternal life. What then is the truth? 
Wherein consists that which, by the formula "much more," 
is made emphatic? According to the Catechism the Answer 

57 



Q- 79- 

is expressed by the use of the words: "sign" and "pledge." 
What is a pledge? An external real thing, event or trans- 
action, certifying the presence and reality of an unseen 
heavenly virtue. So much at least is warranted by the 
words of the Catechism. 

3. What are the contents of the "pledge?" It is this: 
Of Christ's true body and blood believers, in observing 
the Lord's Supper, are as really partakers as by the 
mouth of the body they receive the bread and wine. I 
cannot withold the expression of my judgment that the 
climax is not fully reached. There is a climax. This 
Answer goes beyond Answers 75 and 76, but rather in 
degree than in suostance, and under the same aspect under 
which sacramental truth has before been stated. Let us 
briefly compare Answer 79 with 75 and 76. 

In 75 observe that the words, "Christ Himself feeds and 
nourishes my soul," emphasize Christ's action, and therefore, 
are objective. It is Christ who nourishes me. In 79 we 
have the opposite phase of truth ; the believer's activity is 
emphasized. We receive by the mouth of the bod}* ; thus 
we are really partakers of His true body. Again, 75 speaks 
of the "crucified body and shed blood" while 79 says "true 
body and blood," leaving room for and implying the glori- 
fication of Christ's humanity*. The words of 76, "we are 
flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones," are fully as 
strong as those of 79, "partakers of His true bodv and 
blood." 

The chief thing whereby the climax differs from 75 and 
76 is by the force of the word "pledge." The Sacramental 
transaction assures us not only that we are flesh of His 
flesh, but that of the flesh of Christ we are renewedly 
partakers. By this renewed participation the new life is 
by the Spirit invigorated, developed and advanced, so that 
believers become equal to the resurrection of the dead and 
fitted for everlasting glory. 

4. One important point is now made emphatic. If we 
are members of Christ, if the humanity of Christ nourishes 
us, then we have the assurance that the " sufferings and 
obedience" of Christ are our own. What sufferings? All 
the sufferings endured by Him from His birth to His 
death, including especially the agony in the garden and 
the horrible passion on the Cross. What obedience? The 
positive righteousness of Christ, accomplished by doing 
the will of His Father under the law. In what sense are 
these sufferings and this obedience our own? "Our own as 

58 



Q. 79- 



certainly as if we had ourselves suffered and done all in 
our own persons." Here is a statement of our interest in 
Christ's atoning virtue which is of extraordinary force. 

Q. 80. 

The Answer to this Question is the article of declaration 
of war against the Roman church. In the sixteenth cen- 
tury this Answer provoked political and ecclesiastical hos- 
tility and extraordinary persecution from Roman powers. 

The Council of Trent was in session when the Catechism 
was in process of formation. All its decrees are given in 
the form of condemnation: if any one does not thus and 
so let him be anathema. This fact provoked the introduc- 
tion of Article 80. The Catechism, as prepared by Ursinus 
and adopted by the Synod of the Palatinate, January, 1563, 
ended with the words: "worshipped in them." It did not 
contain the last sentence of Answer 80, as it now stands. 
The Catechism had already gone to press, when the an- 
athemas of the Council of Trent excited the Elector Fred- 
erick III., and he stopped the press and inserted the words : 
"And thus the mass at bottom is nothing else than a denial 
of the one sacrifice and passion of Jesus Christ." Many 
copies were struck of! containing the Answer in this form. 
The continued anathemas of the Council provoked the 
Blector still more, and he stopped the press a second time 
to add the words, "and an accursed idolatry." This acme 
of offense caused the heirs of Frederick the loss of his 
dominions. 

The edition of the Catechism, 1563, therefore has Answer 
80 in three forms. These facts were not certainly known to 
modern history until 1863, when Dr. Schaff made special 
inquiry into the history of Answer 80, and was so fortunate 
as to find a copy of the editio princeps. 

1. The Answer consists of two parts. The first is a 
clear, full statement of the Reformed doctrine, fully equal 
to, if not better than, the preceding Answer, because more 
succinct and direct. As to substance, however, it is the same. 
I specify only a few points: 1. that the Lord's Supper testi- 

59 



Q. 80. 



fies full forgiveness of all sin, original and actual; 2. that by 
the Holy Spirit we are engrafted into Christ and are mem- 
bers of His body; 3. that Christ with His true body is in 
heaven, and 'there we worship Him ; we do not worship 
Him in the sacramental bread. 

2. The second part presents succinctly the main features 
of the Roman doctrine. 

1. The Roman doctrine denies that the living and the 
dead have forgiveness through the sufferings of Christ 
only. The sufferings which He endured on the cross avail 
for us when Christ is offered for us by the priest on the altar. 
Day by day it is necessary, if believers would have peace, 
that the one sacrifice on the cross be repeated on the altar. 

2. This sacrifice on the altar avails for the living and the 
dead. The punishments of the dead in purgatory are miti- 
gated, and their souls are released by the virtue of the 
offering of Christ in the mass. 

3. The Roman Church teaches that Christ is bodily pres- 
ent under the form of bread and wine. That means that 
bread has the size, shape, taste and color of bread, but is 
not bread, only the form of it. So of the wine. There- 
fore, in the host Christ is to be worshipped. The host is 
adored, for it is the real presence of Christ. For these 
reasons the Catechism pronounces the mass to be a denial 
of Christ's one sacrifice, and the adoration of the host to be 
an accursed idolatry. 

Q. 81. 

The Answer consists of two parts. The first teaches 
the required qualifications of a worthy communicant. The 
second part rejects the unworthy. 

1. Those are to come to the Lord's Supper who are dis- 
pleased with themselves for their sins. Sin itself is the 
evil which they must hate. It is not a consequence of sin, 
not the fear of the future world, but sin, as contrary to 
God, with which the Christian is to be at issue. I am dis- 
pleased with myself not because I am a man, but, being 
a man, because I have wronged my manhood and wronged 
God by my sin. 

2. Another qualification is personal faith. I trust in 
Christ, that my sins are forgiven. That means: 1, that the 
penalty is removed, Romans 8:1; 2, that sin is not the 
law of my life. It has no dominion over my will and 

60 



Q. 81. 



conduct. My confidence that my sins are pardoned rests 
on the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Christ has fulfilled the 
law, has offered Himself a sacrifice for me and has over- 
come the kingdom of darkness by His resurrection. 
Therefore, as I accept Him, I am in Him released from 
sin. 

3. This forgiveness includes the remaining depravity of 
my nature, here called " infirmity." Says the Catechism: 
"Their remaining depravity is covered." Romans 3: 25. 
God in Christ deals with me not according to my inherited 
depravity and moral infirmity, but deals with me as at 
peace with Him through faith in Christ. 

4. The third qualification is the positive desire "to 
strengthen" my faith "and amend" my life. Fitness for 
the Holy Communion looks in two directions ; on the one 
hand, toward the world of evil, and on the other toward 
the world of good. The deepest, strangest desire and pur- 
pose of my heart must be to become more firm in faith, 
and to be purer, more righteous, more holy in my daily 
conduct. 

5. All others are unfit to come to the Supper. This in- 
cludes the impenitent, such as have never from the heart 
turned to Christ, confessing sin and looking to Him for 
pardon, and hypocrites, members of the church who have 
the form of godliness without its power. 

Q. 82. 

Two things are named as determining disqualifications : 
"confession and life." "Confession" means the^holding of 
opinions that contravene the fundamental articles of the 
Christian Creed, e.g., in orthodox Protestant churches, the 
denial of the Deity or the humanity of Christ. " Life" relates 
to conduct, including will, desires and the whole tenor 
of a man's deportment. If in either way or through both 
he shows himself unfit, he is not to be admitted to the 
Holy Supper. The unfitness is expressed by the word 
"unbelieving," on the one hand, and by "ungodly" on the 
other. Either is sufficient to exclude a church member ; 
the Answer is unconditional. Then follows the reason for 
the unconditional "No;" and the duty of the church in 
the premises. 

61 



Q. 8 2 . 



1. The reason is: "God's covenant is profaned," i. e., its 
holy character is ignored and set aside. The ordinance 
which is the Holy of Holies of Christian cnltus is reduced 
to the matter of a common meal. 

2. When the Covenant is profaned, God's wrath is pro- 
voked. Against whom? The whole congregation. Why? 
Because the entire membership is, as one body, participat- 
ing, through its officers, in this indifference and desecra- 
tion. Instance in the Old Testament is Achan; in the 
New see i Cor. 5 : 13. 

3. The church is bound to exclude such persons. Matt. 
18:15-18 gives the order of Christ. His authority is 
pronounced and direct. It is reasserted by the Apostle in 
the case of Ananias and Sapphira. Acts 5. How are 
such persons to be excluded? By the office of "the keys." 
The church is represented under the image of a temple, 
also of a walled city. The church is entered by the door 
or the gate, and the instrument which opens and closes it 
is called the key. From this image, common in Scripture, 
is derived the formula of the Catechism, "by the office of 
the keys." Matt. 16: 19. 

How long are such persons to be excluded? Until they 
amend their life. The ethical side of the Christian is here 
brought into the foreground. 

Q- 83. 

The office of the keys is: 1. the preaching of the Gospel ! 
2. church discipline. In order to understand what the 1 
Catechism means by " Holy Gospel," compare Question 19. 
The teaching here is in full harmony with Answer 65. 
The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts by the preach- 
ing of the Holy Gospel. By these two things the king- 
dom of Heaven is opened to believers and shut against 
unbelievers. 

Remark : The Gospel does not approach the world with 
the sentence of condemnation. All are under condemna- 
tion, but the Gospel is glad tidings. Hence to the wicked 
and ungodly, to all errorists, the Gospel comes in love and 
mercy. Condemnation ensues when truth is despised, and 
love trampled under foot. This is fundamental in preach- 
ing the Gospel to the wicked. 
62 



Q. 84- 



The remaining two Questions of Part Second take up 
the consideration of the two keys. Each effects a twofold 
purpose. Each opens and each closes the gates of the 
kingdom. Observe in Question 84 the same order that we 
have in Answer 83. 

1. How are the gates opened by the preaching of the 
Gospel? By a twofold act. The promise of the Gospel is 
"proclaimed" and declared in words that all may hear and 
understand. The promise is also "openly witnessed." Those 
who preach and teach in the name of Christ are living 
witnesses to the virtue of the promise. What is the prom- 
ise? The forgiveness of sins. Here we have a repetition 
of the manner of the Reformation in expressing its ap- 
prehension of Christian truth. To express the undoubted 
certainty of the forgiveness of all sins, both branches of the 
Reformation lay stress on the word of God ; and the cer- 
tainty of that word they express by promise. The thing 
proclaimed and witnessed was that sins are freely for- 
given. Who forgives? God. On what ground ? Not on 
the ground of self-imposed works, but for the sake of 
Christ's merits. 

2. The Catechism means that, from day to day as the 
Gospel is renewedly taught and testified to, the kingdom is 
opened. 

3. The Kingdom is shut against whom? Unbelievers 
outside of or in the church. Also against hypocrites, those 
who, like Simon Magus, profess faith and are baptized from 
sinister motives. What does this shutting mean? "The 
wrath of God and eternal condemnation abide on them." 
John 3 : 36. There is a twofold condemnation: 1. in con- 
sequence of the transgression of moral law, in one or all of 
the commandments of the decalogue; 2. in consequence of 
the rejection of the Gospel. Men say "No" to Truth and 
Righteousness and Love. They say "No" to the infini- 
tude of Grace, and thereby incur divine displeasure, which 
is fatal. The sin of sins is not to believe in Jesus as the 
Christ. 

4. Condemnation exists as long as they are not converted. 

5. The Answer concludes with the solemn truth, that the 
witness of the gospel is prophetic. It is the expression of 
God's judgment. When the gospel declares this funda- 
mental Christian truth: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and thou shalt be saved," this declaration embodies the 

63 



Q. 84. 



judgment of God ; that prevails in this life and in the life to 
come. Paul speaks of the preaching of the gospel as being 
a savor of life unto life, or a savor of death unto death. 

Q. 85, . , 

Here the order is reversed ; the kingdom is, first, shut 
by discipline, and afterwards opened. Why the reverse 
order? Because church discipline deals with church mem- 
bers, persons in the kingdom. Discipline touches them in 
its ultimate effect first, by exclusion ; then, afterwards, on 
the strength of repentance, discipline opens the gates. 
The Answer has these two divisions: 1. How by discipline 
the kingdom is shut. 2. How by discipline the kingdom 
is opened. 

1. Who are subjects for discipline? Those who, bear- 
ing the Christian name, show themselves: r. Unsound 
in doctrine, holding unchristian errors. 2. Unsound in 
life, having fallen into such sins as are incompatible with 
the Christian character. 

2. Such members are to have brotherly admonition from 
a Christian friend, or from a church officer, or from a pastor, 
or from two or more persons. Admonition is to be repeated 
in ordinary cases. 

3. If admonition does not avail, then complaint must 
be made to the Church. According to the organization of 
the Reformed Church such complaint should be made to 
the spiritual council. 

4. If the admonition of the spiritual council does not 
avail, then such persons are excluded from the Christian 
Church. They may be suspended from one commun- 
ion, or more. If suspension does not effect the required 
amendment, excommunication must follow. 

5. This act of exclusion is God's act. 

6. Discipline opens the Kingdom to suspended or 
excommunicated persons, if they promise and show amend- 
ment. Their conduct must answer to their words. 



64 



